Coup d'État
by Mariann's
Summary: AU - Post Hogwarts, Post Voldemort, Sirius and Remus take matters in their own hands - very slightly slash, but nothing too graphic - SBRL
1. It's Over!

A/N: Mostly PG, only the sixth chapter has a bit of sexual activity going on. This was some political utopia I've tried to create here and a very different approach to and usual HP-fic. And for my standards it's a **very** short fic :-)

**1. It's over!**

Minerva McGonagall sat next to a wide bed at the Burrow, watching the unconscious man laying there. He had been moved from the hospital wing at Hogwarts to the Burrow three days after what would be entered into the wizarding history books as the "Great Battle of Hogwarts" on the wish of Harry Potter, who could have asked for anything and received it for the simple fact that he was the great hero of that battle.

The man had been unconscious from an extended exposure to one of the wizarding society's Unforgivable Curses, the Cruciatus curse. He was barely alive, but he survived his Portkey transport to the one place that had been something like a home for Harry Potter during his school years, the Weasley's home. With him and the youngest two Weasley children came Harry's remaining entourage. Next to the patient it consisted of his former Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Remus J. Lupin, his best friend Hermione Granger and the head of his house at Hogwarts, Professor Minerva McGonagall. These four persons were the only ones who could sit next to Sirius Black without agitating the man.

Sirius had been placed in Percy Weasley's room. Remus had enlarged and altered the bed for his mate, so that Sirius had the most comfort possible. For ten days now they had been sitting and watching over the patient, letting no one near him. Remus took the night shifts, sharing the bed with Sirius. He was constantly changing from hope to fear, to lose his lover one more time. Looking back on his partner's life and the luck they had he expected Sirius to wake up at best in a state of mind like Frank and Alice Longbottom. In the worst case he feared Sirius to die. It would be the third time he lost the love of his life and while he didn't want to think of this, the thought nevertheless crossed his mind on a regular basis.

The Great Battle had ruined the last end of term feast for Harry Potter's year at Hogwarts. They had not really been surprised, as the assault had been expected. Aurors and members of the Order of the Phoenix in great numbers had been placed around Hogwarts. Albus Dumbledore had led the fight of the Light Side. It had been terrifying and they suffered from great losses.

A small group of Order members, including Harry, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny, Fred and George Weasley had reached the heart of the Forbidden Forest, where they were met by the core of the Death Eaters. They had duelled everyone who came into their way and had already stunned several of the Death Eaters, when suddenly Harry and Remus heard screams that sounded like Sirius Black had a problem. It took them several more duels and about twenty minutes to reach the scene and then they noticed that Voldemort was calmly pointing his wand at Sirius torturing him with the Cruciatus curse. Sirius was already silent by the time they finally arrived on the spot.

Seeing this had brought Harry to 'explode', at least that was how the others would later describe what they had seen. The powers still hidden inside of the lanky, almost eighteen year old broke forth in this very moment, triggered by an incredible fear of losing his godfather again and rage at seeing Voldemort torturing Sirius. He ran close, kicked Voldemort's wand right out of the way and trampled his enemy into the soft forest ground, before lifting his own wand and casting the deadly Avada Kedavra curse.

It was an incredible blow! The green light shot out of Harry's wand and killed not only Lord Voldemort, but incapacitated all of the Death Eaters in the close vicinity. No one was more astonished than Harry Potter himself at what he had done. Since the Prophecy he had always known it would be between him and Voldemort. He had been granted a special permission by the Ministry to use the killing curse on Lord Voldemort. He was glad for all the witnesses, because the curse would now be stuck to his wand forever.

All that had been the work of maybe twenty seconds.

Breathing heavily he looked down on his dead opponent. On the ground lay a thin body, clad in blackest, now soiled robes, formerly gleaming red eyes wide open in shock. Harry picked up Voldemort's wand and broke it in two halves, before dropping it on the dead body. Then he turned around. Remus had taken care of Sirius, who was now unconscious. He had tears in his eyes.

"Remus! Is he…?" Harry didn't dare asking the question.

Remus shook his head, holding his mate tightly, then he said: "No, but I think he's close!"

Within minutes the clearing was swarmed with Aurors and Order members. Dumbledore arrived and Hermione quickly informed him of what had happened. The newly arrived people informed the small group that everywhere the Death Eaters had collapsed and that they only had to bind them with ropes. Harry turned around and asked sharply:

"Is Peter Pettigrew among them?"

"No. Not that I saw him," Tonks replied.

"Look around here. He must be around!"

The unconscious Death Eaters were looked over and bound with solid ropes. Pettigrew was found very soon and Remus called out to Hermione who had found him:

"Hermione, please use the Hold Animagus spell on Pettigrew or he will yet again be able to get away should he regain consciousness!"

She didn't need to be told twice.

Everyone had floated unconscious people back to Hogwarts after that. Sirius was placed in one of the small rooms off the main hospital wing. But he moaned and writhed every time someone who wasn't Remus, Harry, Hermione or, astonishingly, Professor McGonagall was sitting with him. Finally he was brought to the Burrow, since he was technically still a fugitive murderer, so they couldn't just bring him to St. Mungo's. Dumbledore, who had been injured quite badly himself, had contacted one of the healers at St. Mungo's, who was an Order member and asked him to check on Sirius every day. All they could do was wait.

All that had happened ten days ago. In the meantime all the Death Eaters had woke up and none of them had been harmed badly. The healers looking after them had assumed that the blow of Harry's curse had been strong enough to hit them through the connection with the Dark Mark. No one else around had been hit, only Death Eaters and Professor Severus Snape.

Of course the Order held on to Pettigrew and called for the Minister, who was not ready to believe that this Death Eater was indeed Peter Pettigrew. Only a whole series of questionings under Veritaserum later he reluctantly let go of his long time belief that Sirius Black was a Death Eater and had killed ruthlessly.

There were now several Aurors who were willing to testify about the day Sirius Black had been arrested and Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was ready to question them as well. None of them could really say what had happened, since none of them were at the site when the event had taken place. The statements given by roughly a dozen Muggles who were in the street were dug out to verify. Amelia Bones found out that the majority of them had actually seen the wand in Pettigrew's hand and that the explosion had been caused from where he stood, not from where Sirius Black was positioned about five metres away.

Finally there were about twenty Order members who testified as character witnesses, telling of Sirius' involvement with the Order during the three years of the war and how he had worked hard to bring down Death Eaters around Voldemort.

With the Muggle statements Sirius' old wand had been found. Ollivander was called in and asked to find a brother wand if there was any. Ollivander brought fourth the names of three people whose wands shared Sirius' wand core of a dragon heartstring from the same dragon. One of them was ready to cast a spell against Sirius' wand and forced it to regurgitate all spells that had ever been cast with it. With wide eyes the observers watched as spell after spell came out, all of them defensive or everyday magic, none of them an Unforgivable and none of them a spell that could have caused an explosion, let alone kill thirteen people on the spot.

Bones and the Wizengamot immediately pardoned Sirius Black, much to the dismay of Cornelius Fudge.

Fudge had not been a help these past two years, even though he had acknowledged Voldemort's return. In fact it seemed as if Fudge held back information and interfered with many missions, which then went wrong. He obstructed the Aurors' movements, so that most of the work against Voldemort's forces had been done by the Order of the Phoenix.

Sirius knew nothing of the procedures on his behalf. His loved ones feared it could be too late for him. Remus sat with his lover through every night and even stayed with him on the days. Minerva, Harry and Hermione could only release him for a few hours here and there. Thirteen endless days had passed and the headline of yesterday's paper had been of Sirius' pardon, but he still lay there, unmoving, barely breathing. Remus came to take over the night shift again. Minerva left him. While they talked in low voices they heard Sirius gasp for air and finally turning to his side. Remus jumped and hurried to his lover's side to find out what had happened, but then he smiled.

"He's sleeping, Minerva! Sirius is sleeping! Would you tell the good news to everyone?"

"Oh, Remus, of course! That is such a relief. The worst must be over then!"

Remus nodded. Looking down on his sleeping mate he said:

"I'm sure he'll wake up. All that remains now is the state of his brain, Minerva. He could be as bad as Frank and Alice."

"That would be too hard, Remus! Keep up hope! He'll come through, he's so strong!"

Remus sat down on the bed, caressing lightly over Sirius' long black hair. He tried so hard to keep up hope. He didn't want to believe that he'd lose Sirius for good. But it was so difficult.

The next morning Remus left the room when Minerva returned to go and rest in the next room. Sirius had been restless during the night, but still asleep. He moved around on the bed now. Two hours later his eyes fluttered open. Minerva didn't see it, as his face was buried in a pillow. He moaned a bit and looked around.

Not recognising the room he was in he jumped up and startled Minerva. She hurried to his side and soothed him:

"Sirius? Everything is okay, my boy…"

He turned around and looked at her. Then he shook his head a little and managed to croak:

"Minerva?"

"Yes, Sirius, I've helped keeping watch over you. You've been unconscious for a couple of days. Can you talk?"

"I… think… so…"

"Good. – How do you feel?"

"Pain…" he whispered.

"We expected that. You've been under Cruciatus for about fifteen to twenty minutes, you might have been dead for all it's worth! Now you need to take a sip of this potion, dear, it will help against the pain!"

Minerva helped Sirius turn around and lifted him up enough to hold a goblet against his lips. He swallowed a cool tasting potion and almost immediately relaxed. Taking a deep breath he sank back on the bed. She looked at him and said:

"Does it help?"

He nodded.

"Good. The healer said you need to take it again as soon as the pain is back and as long as the pain returns. He thinks it will take several days until the aftershocks of the curse are dying down and that there is really no need for you to feel all this pain."

Sirius nodded again, closed his eyes and only whispered:

"Remus?"

"He's just next door, Sirius, I'll call him right now. He's resting for a bit. He's hardly left your side!"

Minerva stood up and quietly left the room, closing and locking the door behind her, then she went to wake Remus, who was up in two seconds. He rushed over to Sirius and embraced him.

"Oh, my love! I can't believe it, I'm so thankful, love! I was so scared!" he sobbed in a low voice.

"It's alright, Moony, I'll get better, won't I?"

"Yes, love, you will! You're responding, you seem to be okay in your head. That was all we still had to fear, that you'd wake up and be like Frank and Alice. And I have a surprise for you!"

"How is everyone, Remus? And where are we?"

"We're at the Burrow. We've suffered some losses among the Order members and the Aurors and two students in Harry's year were killed, too, as well as three younger students, but everyone else is just fine. I'm sorry we got there so late, Siri! Hearing your screams and not being able to do something against them was the worst thing that ever happened to me."

Remus quickly told Sirius what had happened. A smile spread over Sirius' tired face and he whispered:

"He's unbelievable, Remus, isn't he?"

"Yes, love, he really kicked some butts, to use a blunt expression. And then he calmly snapped Voldemort's wand in two!"

"And all Death Eaters collapsed? Just so? Wow."

"Incredible! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd never have believed it. Snape was hit, too, of course, which is why we think it went through the Dark Mark. Luckily it only killed Voldemort!"

"Was Pettigrew there?" Sirius asked with a trembling voice.

"Yes, he was! That's my surprise." Remus' eyes started to shine as he told Sirius that he had been pardoned by the Wizengamot and judge Bones' decision. "They leave you the option to press charges against the responsible people from back then, but only Fudge is left. I'd say you should, after all they didn't even grant you a trial."

Sirius shook his head. He didn't want to be reminded of all of this anymore. He just wanted to leave it all behind. Then the pain started to set in again and he stretched his hand out for the potion.

A few hours of rest later he was examined by a healer from St. Mungo's. The healer declared he only needed extended bed rest for at least one or two weeks before he should try to get up for longer periods of time.

"He's only allowed out of bed for about two hours a day. And that time should be spent on a sofa or in an armchair."

"He'll hate it," Harry remarked.

He had entered the room a short while before the healer came in and was so happy to see his godfather not only alive, but on the way to be better.

The next two weeks were spent in boredom, but Sirius and Remus had some plans. They would await the unfreezing of the Black estate and accounts to go out house hunting to find a new home. Sirius was cooperative and stayed in bed most of the time. He knew he was still too weak to do more than spend a few hours out of bed every day. But the time he was allowed out of bed increased in the second week.

The others would let him sleep alone now, if he slept during the day. For that reason no one was around him, when one day someone apparated right into Percy's room and sat down next to Sirius to shake him awake. Sirius jumped and found himself opposite Cornelius Fudge.

"Cornelius Fudge! What brings you here?" Sirius asked with a growl.

"You will be granted freedom, Black, but I'm the one with the power to unfreeze your accounts. And I'm only willing to do so if you hand over 80 of what's in there. Nothing less or I'll set the Dementors on you after all."

Sirius blanched. He backed away from the Minister, but inside he called frantically for his mate and was heard. Downstairs, Remus felt restless and said:

"I'll go look after Sirius! Something is wrong!"

Remus ran up the stairs, closely followed by Minerva, Molly Weasley, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny. They crashed through the door and found Fudge next to Sirius, with dangerously glittering eyes.

"You must be out of your mind, Fudge! You'll not see one single Knut of what is my possession by birthright. If I've been cleared by the Wizengamot you have no right to threaten me like this or it will cost you your job! Frankly, I was letting it go, but now I will press charges and if they hear at the trial what you just said then you're not only politically dead, you'll be ruined!" Sirius said in a low voice, again with a growl.

"Sirius! Minister, what are you doing in my house?" Molly asked with a stern face.

Fudge gave a faint smile and said:

"I was going to inform him of his pardon…"

"Oh yes, and threatening me with the Dementor's Kiss if I didn't hand over 80 of what's in my Gringotts vaults," Sirius added.

"WHAT?" everyone else cried out.

Upon which Fudge disapparated.

"He didn't!" cried Ron.

"Oh, you'd better believe it!" Sirius replied, still breathing heavily. "Just barged in here, shook me awake and told me calmly that he wouldn't unfreeze my vaults. Someone better get hold of him or I'll do it myself!"

"We'll go both of us," Remus said calmly and angrily.

"He's definitely overstepped his boundaries. I'll be at Gringotts right now and will warn them that he might try to get hold of your money, Sirius!" Molly Weasley announced.

"He can only unfreeze the accounts, Molly, don't worry, the goblins won't let him even near there without a key and the keys to Sirius' accounts are with Dumbledore," Remus told her.

"Oh, good. I'm glad for that. Shall I still notify Bill none the less?"

"That would be a good idea. Get up, Sirius, this will be the test of how you'll do outside of bed!"

Everyone but Sirius and Remus left the room, then the two of them got dressed and left for the Ministry. On the way they both mulled over some ideas and finally they headed to the Aurors' Headquarters to find Kingsley Shacklebolt rather than the Minister himself. Kingsley was there and welcomed them. Sirius came right to the point and told him of the Minister's behaviour. Shacklebolt's reaction was astonishing, because he balled his fists in anger.

"That's probably the worst he's ever done! Sirius, I tell you the man is corrupt you wouldn't believe it. He's filled his pockets with about a quarter of Lucius Malfoy's money over the years. Even during the war he still continued to keep Malfoy in his favour. I don't know why he managed to make Malfoy pay over and over again. But this is just the icing on the cake!"

"We've just decided on a coup d'état, Kingsley! There's no way that we can let this man keep on ruling the wizarding society. He's gone mad, I tell you! I'm willing to risk everything to change the community for the better and I'd bet I'd be forgiven an illegal action if everyone got rid of him. Do you think we could get the Aurors' support? If I have that I can do it!" Sirius said through clenched teeth.

"Sirius! You'd do that? But it's going to be hellishly dangerous! You know that there are a lot of his supporters who could be bringing you down."

"I know. I take that risk. I think I have enough to offer politically that people will forgive me my actions. Besides I'll only take on the role until the Ministry is clean again!"

A grin spread over Kingsley's face. He took Sirius' hand and pulled him to the Chief Auror's office. During the last year, Alastor Moody had been called back to the post by Amelia Bones. Of course she had gone against Fudge's wishes and everyone knew that the old Auror detested the Minister. And since then the Aurors were back doing what they were supposed to do.

"Chief, could I have a few minutes of your precious time?" Kingsley asked.

A few minutes grew to become several hours. Remus sent an owl back to the Burrow to tell everyone to stay at home and wait for the news they'd have the next day and not to worry, they were fine.


	2. Governor Black

2. Governor Black 

The very next day there was a special announcement on the WWN, the Wizarding Wireless Network. Molly had the wireless on most of the time and when she heard a crackling announcement that there would be an important news report directly from the Ministry at noon she called everyone in the house to the living room to listen. Their eyes all went wide when they heard Sirius' voice:

"Ladies and Gentlemen!

As of this time you hear the voice of your new ruling Governor. My name is Sirius Black. I have been able to gain the support of the Aurors to overrule old Minister Cornelius Fudge. I am highly aware of the illegality of my actions, but I think you all might forgive me for this once you'll be informed of the new government's reasons and our plans. At first I'd like to tell you who is behind our coup d'état and supports us: Chief Auror Alastor Moody. Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Amelia Bones. Head of the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Amos Diggory. Head of the Department of International Cooperation, Percy Weasley.

We have reasons to believe that Cornelius Fudge has gone insane. We have reasonable suspicion that he has acted not for, but against the wizarding community. He is extremely corrupt, has taken money from at least four different sources to grant favours. The crowning of his actions took place when he had the audacity to apparate into my sick room at my current living quarters to threaten me that I would only really get my freedom back if I handed over 80 of the contents in mine and my family's Gringotts vaults. And finally when we arrested him, we have found out that his left forearm is blemished by the Dark Mark. In other words, our Minister has been a servant of Lord Voldemort.

I will strive to unveil all of his political misdeeds. I promise and take the responsibility to clean up the Ministry from within, top to bottom. I am aware that all of you who are out there listening to this statement will not believe me, but I will prove to you all that you are not going to be governed by a dictator. I will hold this position of Governor until the Ministry is back to what it should be. A place where people work for the wizarding society, not against it. All current laws will remain valid.

We will find the people in here who do good and honest work. There are many of them. But we will also find all the ones who are cheating the witches and wizards of the street of their money, which they take for favours, or do no real work at all. We, that is the afore mentioned reliable members of the Ministry and I. You should certainly know their names and their integrity.

Now this may not be the right way to go about it, but with the fall of Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters we should take the chance to build up our society again and in peace. No one, and I repeat, NO one will have anything to fear from me than those who have done wrong.

Knowing that this will be a huge change in our community I would like to assure you all that I have no wish to remain in this position for a day longer than necessary unless I should be called back because people will believe that I'm doing the right thing. And knowing that we will soon need good personnel for the Ministry I call out to you people out there who would be willing to come and help cleaning up and start working again. Not working for a career only. I will conclude my statement with a quote from a Muggle ruler who once said: In these times ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

All howlers, comments, advice or votes of confidence are to be sent to my office at the Ministry. I will probably not be able to reply personally to every letter, but I promise that all of them shall be read and all who state name and address should get a reply of some sort."

The people in Molly's living room all sat frozen and almost terrified. None of them would have believed Sirius to be capable of such a thing. They all stared at each other, open mouthed and finally, Minerva was the first to find her voice again.

"I can't believe he did this."

Molly shook her head.

"I always knew he was rash! Oh, he'll pay for that so dearly. How could he do this?"

"I'd say he's got a lot of support inside the Ministry, if it's true what he said just now, and we know he's not usually lying," Hermione remarked.

"I think, as illegal as it may have been, but we should all support him. We all knew Fudge wouldn't go without being forced out of his office, and now hearing he has the Dark Mark… that practically legitimates Sirius' action," Arthur commented and surprised his wife.

"What? You must be out of your mind, Arthur! It's still an illegal action, how can you support that? How? Just tell me? And he claims Percy supports him, too!"

"Well, he's got MY support, too," Ginny said.

"And mine."

All the young people in the room looked determined to jump to Sirius' ranks. Molly didn't want to have any part in it and ordered Ginny to keep quiet.

"Sorry, Mum, but I'm an adult now and I will not let you rule my political views. Sirius may have been rash, but he did what was needed to be done, because Fudge was certainly on the way to have the Wizengamot be overthrown. I'm pretty sure, Sirius plans no such thing. And I won't be surprised at all if the Wizengamot will grant him permission to do what he wants to do," Ginny said calmly.

"I think, Ginny is right," Minerva said.

Molly looked at her, flabbergasted.

"Minerva! Just think about it. He said it himself, it's a coup d'état! I can't believe that Remus was supporting this!"

The discussion went on for hours, but Molly found herself alone in her position. She disliked Fudge just as much as anyone else, but she also didn't have too many feelings left for Sirius Black, so she stuck to her decision not to support the man.

After a while they were fire-called by Albus Dumbledore. He informed them, that the Wizengamot had just decided by a small majority to give Sirius a chance to follow up on his promises. Molly gasped, the young people grinned. Arthur was pleased. The statement was being transmitted several times during the day and the next day as well, interspersed with new statements from the Ministry. The day after that a press conference was held. Sirius gave another statement, granting press freedom and asking for critical, but fair articles.

"We are willing to be looked at with critical eyes. We need the press to remain critical and comment our actions. But we ask for fairness and not to criticise just to say something negative. Reasonable critics will be considered. We shall, however, use our legal rights against slander and disrespect."

He was tired looking and one reporter told him so. Sirius looked straight at the man's eyes and said:

"I have only just recovered from extended exposure to the Cruciatus curse. I've landed myself with a flu. I think that yes, I do look rather tired. I intend to recover quickly though. We have a lot of work to do and I'll not just delegate it to others."

"Do you plan to hold trials against faulty Ministry members?" one other reporter asked.

"That depends upon the degree of their wrong doing. We will certainly hold hearings and then the Wizengamot will decide whether a trial will be needed. There **will** be a trial against Cornelius Fudge. He's hid his traces well, but I suppose we will be able to get some witnesses to testify against him. Besides he is a Death Eater, therefore the Aurors will pursue him already for that fact. He cannot hide behind political immunity. Ministry officials who have just done minor illegal deeds will be sacked, but not pursued legally. Expect a few trials against some of the higher positioned staff who received their positions by either granting the Minister favours or bribing him."

"And what will you change inside the Ministry?"

Every time Sirius started to answer a question, a forest of wands was aimed to catch his replies.

"We definitely will do our best to return to a functioning service at the Ministry. If memory serves me right, some of you have continuously criticised the Ministry for its lack of initiative, for its slow going processes and for an over-abundance of laws that were offering too many loopholes for criminals. I remember reading a lot of such articles. We are certain that these laws have been created this way on purpose. One of the main jobs will be to work over the complete legal body that governs the wizarding society. Once we have the professionals ready to start their work there will be more detailed press statements about their proceedings and their progress."

"The Wizengamot has granted you the position you now hold. It's still a coup d'état. You've committed a crime doing this!"

"Yes, it is and yes, I did. This is the reason why I will clear this position at the earliest convenience to leave it to someone competent. I do not claim to have the competence. You might remember that I've lost fifteen years of my life to circumstances over which I had no power. And that means I'm lacking fifteen years of life experiences. But grant me the benefit of the doubt that I will be able to gather a group of people around me who **have** the necessary kind of experience, skill and knowledge, many of them who are already working at the Ministry.. I'll be merely their voice to the outside. The "group" consists of many reliable Ministry officials, most prominently I'd like to mention Madam Amelia Bones, who will have the lead on the legal renovation. Every member of that group will become publicly known."

"Are there going to be consultants from outside of the Ministry?"

"Yes, I think there will be some of those. The Ministry will have to be completely reformed and some of the departments will probably suffer more loss of personnel than others. These positions must be replenished and thus we strive to gain more competence, ideas and quality of service."

"Can you name possible outside consultants?"

"One of them will definitely be Albus Dumbledore."

Sirius stood for about two hours, then he had to take a seat, because he was so tired. Remus looked at him from the back of the room, worry in his eyes. The two of them had moved right into the Minister's suite inside of the Ministry to be available whenever they would be needed.

"Can you elaborate on the arrest of Fudge?"

"It was astonishingly easy. We practically plucked him walking through a corridor and put him into a detention cell inside the Ministry. His wand has been handed to the lawyer of the prosecution, who will lead the trial. Amelia Bones has already named Jeffrey Smith as the lawyer of the prosecution."

"What are you going to do about Azkaban?"

"The Dementors are all back at Azkaban. For the time being we will have to go on with the prison, though my personal experience is telling me it's wrong. But it hasn't first priority on the list of things to work out. It's not, however, forgotten."

"You're Harry Potter's godfather, will he be honoured one of these days for vanquishing You-Know-Who?"

Sirius smiled.

"Surely you can say his name, now that he's dead! Yes, Harry will be honoured for that, but we will grant him what he wishes for, privacy. He has been through a terrible ordeal and deserves a good long while of rest, before he has to face the public."

"Where is he now?"

"His current location is a secret. He doesn't want it known, therefore I shall not tell."

"Is he alive at all?"

"Oh yes, he's very alive and fine! He was badly shaken up after the battle, I hear, but he's just fine now."

Slowly the questions started to die down. Finally Sirius made a last statement:

"I have one last thing to say, which I hope will convince you of my sincerity, not to gain personal power or play a revenge game against former Minister Cornelius Fudge. Though the latter might have had a say in my action. I was sent to Azkaban for life without a trial and Cornelius Fudge pushed the decision through with the help of Bartemius Crouch. I will not press further charges for that. I will not accept any kind of payment for my work. I would like to discourage anyone who considers offering me money for favours. I will do what will be needed to be done because of my deepest belief that we need to take the chance to reform our community after the end of a terrible war, after years and years of a false sense of freedom and security. I'm calling each and everyone of you to your duty to respect your neighbour, be they witches or wizards, Muggles, half-giants or werewolves. I ask you all to concentrate on your work and thus help the community to prosper. My only demand on anyone is to try and see past prejudices.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you."

With that Sirius stood up and ended the conference. He was too tired to even stand anymore, so Remus helped him to their quarters where he pushed Sirius on the bed and gave him a mild sleeping potion. The situation seemed to be stable now after the statements of support of the Wizengamot. Remus cast an anti-apparition ward over the bedroom and left Sirius alone to sleep as long as he needed to. Sirius' first action as ruling Governor had been to make Remus his personal assistant and that had been granted by the Wizengamot upon urging of Albus Dumbledore. Remus went to the living room, where he met up with Albus.

"How is he doing?"

"Just exhausted, Albus, I think, he is fine otherwise. A few square meals…"

"Good. That was an utterly foolish thing to do, Remus, and you know it. I am surprised you supported this."

"Fudge just went that one little step too far this time, Albus. What he did was at least as illegal. It was time someone took the initiative. You can imagine how shocked we were seeing the Dark Mark on his arm! Sirius is as sincere as anyone and he'll be a very good Governor. Simply because he has a good sense of reality, in spite of what some member of the Weasley household who will remain unnamed thinks. We have a lot of really good ideas and I'm quite sure, that Sirius' determination not to take any money will win him a lot of sympathy. Because he'll live up to it. I take none either, by the way."

Albus sighed.

"Utterly foolish, Remus. But very, very courageous. You two are true Gryffindors." He smiled.

Remus returned the smile. He called for the house-elf to bring them some tea and a light dinner. They ate together in companionable silence, only occasionally Albus asked Remus for more concrete plans. Remus outlined some of them that could be started in the next days and some that would have to wait until the newly hired personnel would be trained up enough to execute them.

"One of them should be to overthrow some of the laws against werewolves, Remus. You're still walking on an illegal ground."

"Which is why I won't accept payment. With Sirius backing me I don't need any. No one can yet press charges against me for illegal employment when I'm volunteering."

"Good thought. But work on it."

"I'm a bit afraid to do that, Albus. It's very well known that I'm a werewolf, people would think I'm seeking favourites. But Amos, though not eagerly, is working quietly on it. It will be part of the legal reform. I have a lot of time, with the Wolfsbane potion I'll be able to live for a long time, so there's no worries for me. And I have my mate supporting me."

"Then I am content."

"Umbridge will have to go though. She'll certainly be sacked. There are a couple of other sycophants and I'm actually in the belief that Percy Weasley is one of them, but he at least does quite effective work in his department. And he's worked for our side partly against Fudge in the last two years. In other words, he's not been working for favours. He'll quite certainly be one of those who get second chances. Not only because he supported our little uprising."

"I have spoken to Amelia Bones. She was all smiles. She said the two of you went straight to the Aurors."

"We did. And Mad-Eye was right indignant when Sirius told him about Fudge's threat. Said that this was just the last straw and that he'd have the Aurors back us. In the past two days I've found out that about two thirds of the staff here are very uncomfortable with Fudge. We're starting to interview those people next week. We'll need the Wizengamot, or at least two members at any given time, to follow those interviews."

"How come, Alastor had not been able to spot that Dark Mark on Fudge's arm?"

"I don't know, but it might actually have been acquired very recently. He seems to have been able to conceal it very well. Of course, if Voldemort wanted Fudge in his ranks, he didn't want to have everyone know of the fact. We hope to find that out at the trial. We won't be able to work without the truth serum though, I believe. Fudge shouldn't be able to resist it."

"That makes sense then. – Now, tell me how you are, Remus! It seems to me that you have been pulled into this…"

"…certainly not against my wish, Albus. On the contrary! Seeing, that Fudge just apparated into Sirius' sick room at the Burrow and threatened him with the Dementor's Kiss if he didn't give him most of his money was the last straw for me as well. You should have seen his face when we found out about his Dark Mark. He just slumped down on the floor and gave up. And that was that. As Sirius said, almost much too easy. Not that we were sorry about it. Maybe he'd have been out of the office soon anyway, but I hate to think that he's just put aside so much money through all his dirty games. I would hate it even more if he could get away on that."

"Well, you can regard yourself as the counsellor of the Governor now. Do you know why Sirius chose to be called by this title?"

"A minister in our society gets elected or appointed, Sirius is neither. He wanted to make sure that people understand he doesn't see himself as the Minister of Magic."

"It is not me you need to convince of Sirius' integrity and sincerity. You will have to do a lot of good to get the people to trust him, for right now…"

"Oh, believe me, we have received a load of response already. Sirius has made the address public enough, hasn't he? Look at those boxes there! I'll be going through them in the next days and I'll sort them out. The ones I've read so far are amazing! We had three howlers, one by the Weasley twins with congratulations. The other two were mildly disapproving and one said he'd have his eyes closely on our further actions. I'll have the letters put in folders and they will be open to the public eyes once they received proper replies. The least we want to do is to acknowledge them and Sirius wants to read them. Though I'm not sure if he manages to do that in a reasonable amount of time. There's still a lot more letters coming in and at one point we'll have to do some of the work we promised to do. I might ask the kids to help with the replies."

"Do you know what they have planned?"

"I think they all want to have a really relaxing vacation. Hermione thinks of joining the Ministry, she'd be a great asset anywhere! Ron wants to start Auror training. Harry just wants to vanish out of the public for a while. He'll have to think of some reaction to the way he's being used by the press. There's only so much slander you can take and if I were in his position I'd have sued them long ago. Blatant lies are blatant lies after all. But maybe the journalists will be a bit more careful now that Sirius has warned them to leave Harry alone."

"Harry would be a great asset as well."

"I know."

"What are the next steps?"

"Cleaning up," Remus said with a shrug, "We've received about thirty resignations in the past two days. All from people out of Fudge's circle. We'll have the Aurors investigate a little and if they have any dirt they'll face the judge."

"Anyone I know?"

"Oh certainly! Most of them were your students at some point, Albus! Or all of those who resigned. There's Herbert Macnair, Walden's brother. Not a Death Eater, but close to them and, as you well know, head of the Department of Mysteries. Those blokes will not go unchecked, by the way! Then there's Elsa Kenneth, secretary of Fudge's. We're thinking of telling Hermione to apply for this position, she'd love to have a load of knowledge about everything that's going on and she's a great organiser. This post needs someone with a well organised mind like her. Important job, too! Jasper O'Connor, Head of the Department of Internal Affairs. He's been a close friend of Fudge's and he's highly suspicious of having gained his position by granting Fudge lots of favours. He'll be investigated as well."

Remus looks through a small folder of resignation parchments.

"Here, my favourite: Orion Mulcahy, Werewolf Registry. No one will cry if that one is gone! There were only ten cases of new werewolves to be registered in the past twenty years, but the guy kept inventing new laws to put us down. With the kind assistance of Dolores Umbridge of course, and Fudge's. I'd say that about ten of those legislatives were aimed directly at me personally. As you know he's practically put the Support Unit out of service."

Dumbledore sighed. He knew well enough that these people had not done their work honestly. The Ministry was practically in shambles.

"Well, there is not much we can do directly, Remus, but the majority of the Wizengamot has given you both green light to go ahead and do your best. You will be watched very closely and you will probably not get much time to yourselves for some time, but let me assure you that if you should succeed, you will both deserve to be honoured!"

"We intend to do our best. And watch our backs, too."

After a long conversation Dumbledore left Remus, who still had to write out an order to every head of a department to turn up at the conference room for a staff meeting the very next day. Now that they had the 'appointment' from the Wizengamot they intended to set the positions clear and Sirius had to work out who would cooperate and who would not. Three departments were already bereft of a head as their leaders had already abandoned the service. One was the Department of Muggle Relations, which Remus thought was an important one. Arthur would have to move out of his tiny office, Remus thought. He prepared a short memo to him, which Sirius would have to sign first thing in the morning to get Arthur to join the staff meeting. In the two other departments, Remus called for the deputy.


	3. Meetings

3. Meetings 

Remus joined Sirius in bed very late that night. They slept through though and Remus, who didn't need as much sleep as Sirius, was well rested. So was Sirius who was eager to start working. He prepared the list of topics to discuss at the staff meeting with Remus, who then gave him the memo to Arthur to sign. Sirius smiled when he did that and sent it down to Arthur's office.

Shortly before lunch there was a knock on the door of Sirius' office and Elsa Kenneth entered.

"Governor Black, Madam Malkin would like to have a word with you, can I let her in?"

"Yes, please, Miss Kenneth. Thank you."

Little Madam Malkin swept into the office and waited for Miss Kenneth to close the door again. Then she looked at Sirius and asked:

"How do I address you, sir?"

He smiled and replied while guiding her to a seat:

"How ever you like, Madam Malkin! You know my name. Mr Black is more than enough!"

"I think, that will do then, thank you, Mr Black. I've known you since your childhood days when you came to my shop to get your first robes after all."

"You suffered, I suppose! What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to thank you for what you did! I think it was incredibly courageous. And while not all shop owners of Diagon Alley will speak up like I do, I'm sure that many of the others are as relieved as I am. The situation was getting dire! Are you aware that Minister Fudge and his cronies have implemented about twenty different extra taxes in the last five or six years? I'd like to petition that these laws should be looked over soon. Because they harm trade in any form and it's been close to impossible to prosper on any shop lately. We had to raise prices in an unreasonable way."

Sirius nodded.

"In other words, it has been difficult to still earn any money because taxes are too high?"

"Definitely. There are five different sales taxes alone. I don't know what they financed with it, but I think these are more than excessive. For every robe I sell I pay about 65 of taxes."

Madam Malkin handed him a list of taxes, which Sirius looked over. Then he looked up at her and said:

"I can't say how quickly we can abolish some of this, but if we can't do it in a reasonable time there will be refunds. I have a staff meeting today and this will be one of the questions I'll ask the Head of the Finance Department. This is a part of the Ministry I haven't yet touched at all. I'm still gaining an overview of everything, learning the structures and the people. But I agree with you, taxes that weigh too heavily on trades are not exactly good for a prospering economy. Are you content for now if I tell you that this will be looked at and that we'll do what we can, Madam?"

"Yes. I'm amazed that I even got to see you so smoothly. To see Cornelius Fudge one had to have a date about a month ahead."

Sirius laughed and said charmingly:

"Well, who knows? Right now everyone seems to kind of wait for what we'll do and I get the time to do some work, but the demand for my person may rise in the next few weeks. Already I have to plan my days very well or I'll be dead within a few months! There is so much to do. – But I can certainly see the necessity of a stable economy, so I'll have to weigh the actual needs of the Ministry against that. And we'll of course try to find out where tax money has been wasted."

She looked at him admiringly and remarked:

"Mr. Black, I was most amazed at your intentions not to take any salary for your work here. I know that your family has always been very wealthy and that you can afford to do this, but I'm sure that no one else would do this! It's what made me trust you and believe in your sincerity."

"Thank you, Madam! I'll probably come by your shop to have a few sets of robes fitted in the next days and weeks. I'll have to spread my orders over some of the clothes shops, but I'd be glad if you could make my business robes and the ones for my assistant."

"I'll have time for you both whenever you come to my shop, sir!"

Madam Malkin got up and thanked Sirius for his time. He shook her hand and thanked her for her support. Then she left and he sat down for a moment, a dozen ideas going through his head, which he noted down. Remus came in a while later and said:

"Lunch time, love! Come on, take a break, you have to eat!"

"Sure, love! I'm just jotting down a few questions for the financial department. I want an exact statement of the Ministry's expenses…"

Remus looked at him.

"That's something we haven't even touched yet!"

"Exactly."

"By the way, was that little Madam Malkin who just left?"

Sirius laughed.

"Yes. And she's the reason why I noticed we'll have to talk about finances, too, this afternoon."

"There will only be the deputy of the deputy, both head and deputy have already abandoned their posts. Should we add them to the list of those who should be investigated?"

"I'm beginning to think so, yes!"

"Oh dear! This will never end! It looks like most of the departments will be without a head for a while. We'll have to learn to know the people in those departments and see their merits before anything can be decided…"

"Did you get to talk to Hermione? I'd like to be rid of Miss Iceberg out there as soon as possible…"

"In fact I did. This morning. She's interested, even though it's a subordinate position with no real career prospects. I think I have convinced her that it's a pretty powerful position… and that she'll have to re-evaluate her career anyway once you finish your work here. Unless you do it so well that people beg you to stay."

"You know, that's not even so impossible, if I get more visitors like Madam Malkin…"

"So she was nice?" Remus asked.

"Her usual charming self," Sirius replied with a chuckle.

"Do you remember when you and James almost ruined her shop window back in sixth year, when you were supposed to shop for school robes?" Remus reminded his lover.

Sirius hooked his arm into Remus', led him out of the office and grinned.

"I even told her I was aware she probably suffered from having known me since I needed my first robes. – We're taking a lunch break, Miss Kenneth, we'll be back in an hour and then we'll head for the staff meeting. I hope, everything has been set up for this?"

"Yes, Governor Black."

She almost exaggerated on the title. Sirius thanked her politely, but grimaced as he walked away.

"So what did our Hermione say?"

"Wanted time to think about it until tomorrow evening. We're supposed to go to the Burrow for dinner. I'm busy collecting our different belongings from my place, Grimmauld Place, Hogwarts and the Burrow to move everything here. I've been busy with the house-elves to have Fudge's stuff removed."

"Good. Nothing to remind us of the git in there anymore by tonight? Only the furniture?"

"Yes, but the furniture had been bought on Ministry costs, so we can't well throw it out."

"No, we can't. But assorted things will have to go. And next Saturday you and I will have to take a shopping trip. We'll have to get dressed a bit better, love. I've already told Madam Malkin that we would show up at her place for all the business robes. We can get the dress robes at Gladrags in Hogsmeade."

Remus sighed.

"I suppose that will have to be."

"Oh yes, it will."

They ate at their flat and headed down to Sirius' office to gather everything for the meeting. It was a very long list of topics and the meeting would certainly not only last this afternoon, but also the next day. Sirius had asked for detailed lists of the staff in each department and their salaries. He also asked for detailed reports on what was going on in each department. He expected that some of the department heads would likely try to back out, especially the deputy of the Department of Mysteries, since they liked to see their work as a secret. Sirius intended to either make them talk about their activities and show their expenses or threaten to close the whole department.

An owl reached them just before they wanted to leave. It was Hedwig. Sirius welcomed her and she sat on his arm. Remus took Harry's letter from her leg.

"Hello, girl! Do you need an answer? Then you'll have to wait until tonight, I'm afraid, as we have to go to a lengthy meeting now. Are you okay if we just confirm receipt?"

Hedwig hooted and Sirius wrote a quick note:

"Harry

Got your letter and will read it as soon as I can. Staff meeting right now, so I'll reply tonight!

Love

Sirius"

They were in the conference room a few minutes later. Kenneth had set up all seats, had seen that the house-elves held coffee, tea and other beverages ready and supplied all seats with Sirius' prepared list of topics. They were sorted by departments. Each department head would have to answer to his questions, which of course were only the beginning of most probably more questions. Sirius had a folder set up where he would gather all the replies to his questions. There was a whole stack of empty parchments and an enchanted quill to record everything that was said.

Some of the people were already gathered in the room when Remus and Sirius entered. Amelia Bones walked up to them and greeted them cordially.

"Hello Sirius, hello Remus!"

"Hello Amelia! How are you today?"

"Thank you, just fine. – This will be long, won't it?"

"Yes. Better expect it to last well into tomorrow. I need an overview over the structures, the workings, the finances, everything…"

"Too right you will. I know you were an Auror, but that was long ago," she remarked.

"I do want to learn as much as I can. I'm not dumb…"

"No, of course you aren't. Will you have any other counsellors besides Remus?"

"I suppose. I need to learn to know people and see if I can trust them. Albus will certainly always have good advice."

She nodded. Then she took her seat at the large oval table. Amos Diggory came in and greeted them. He jovially started to talk about several things going on in his department when other officials entered, whom Sirius didn't know yet. He greeted them and suggested:

"Would you mind if I made kind of a roll call and you get the opportunity to present yourselves and your departments to me shortly once we get started?"

They accepted and they all waited for the room to be filled. When finally all twelve departments were represented, Sirius bade everyone to sit down, while he stood up.

"Thank you for coming on time. As you all know full well, my name is Sirius Black and this is my assistant, Remus Lupin. He's going to watch over our quill recording this session.

Now, I'm fully aware that I'm standing here on a completely illegal basis after a completely illegal action. You may or may not know that I have been a member of the Order of the Phoenix and while technically still a fugitive Azkaban prisoner I have nevertheless fought for the Order against the Death Eaters and Voldemort. All of you should now know that I have never killed outside of my line of duty and even there my record is clean. I was charged to have betrayed my friends, the Potters and killed Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles. You probably know by now that I had been successfully framed by Pettigrew. I have been sent to Azkaban without a trial. When I escaped I still had to fear for my life until we were able to finally arrest Peter Pettigrew and thus prove that he did not die that day. I am most thankful to the assistance of all Aurors and the team around Amelia Bones to have my name cleared.

Taking this position the way I did was illegal. I have been kind of legitimised by the Wizengamot who decided to give green light and rectify my doings, thus giving me the chance to follow on my promises. Before I even started out I assured myself of the support of the Aurors and several persons among you. With the help of some Aurors we have arrested Cornelius Fudge on the charge of treason and corruption and finally, once we had a chance to check him up, the charge of being a Death Eater. As of now we do not know yet when he joined the ranks of Voldemort's servants, but he definitely has the Dark Mark on his arm. Jeffrey Smith is leading the investigation as the lawyer of prosecution.

I'd like to welcome you to the first full meeting of the heads of departments. I don't know how it was handled under the former Minister, but I'd like us to meet every Monday afternoon at two for a short briefing about the goings-on in each department. I expect a written report and a short aural presentation of the most important activities, staff decisions, problems etcetera, so we can all discuss pending problems and advise possible solutions. The main goal behind that is that every head of department knows a bit of what's going on in the other departments.

I expect from you transparency. I wish to be informed of all major decisions on the basis of the heads of departments and the heads of all offices within the departments. You are therefore asked to gather such information on time before the Monday afternoon session. I suggest, if this hasn't already been done before, that you keep a list of all of your units and enter details on Monday mornings to be presented at the Monday afternoon meetings. I intend to have written protocols sent back to you."

Amelia held up her hand and Sirius nodded.

"We did have meetings about once every half year, but only to be informed about plans of the Minister. This may take some organisation before we can hold those meetings regularly."

"I see. Well, it's Thursday now, so I think we can forego next Monday, but by the week after you should be able to have things ready. Inform the team-leaders of your sub-units of this soonest. Miss Kenneth, please note down the 13th July, two o'clock as the set date of the first meeting. I do not intend to send invitations to those meetings, I expect every head of department or their deputy to turn up on time."

There was a bit of murmuring, but then the people nodded.

"Good. I'd like to make a bit of a roll call so I can get to know those of you I've not been introduced to yet. May I start with you, Mrs Montgomery?"

"Yes, sir. I'm Elizabeth Montgomery, 58 years old, have been the head of the Hogwarts Board of Governors for three years and a member of this board for eight years before that. I'm the head of the Department of Education, every wizarding primary and secondary school as well as the two wizarding academies are in my jurisdiction. I have been head of the department for a year now. I've been appointed by Cornelius Fudge on advice of Albus Dumbledore and the rector of Avalon Academy, Rector Brown."

"Thank you, Madam. – Ludo, I've known you for a long time, so you don't need to present yourself. Mr Celli?"

"I'm deputy head of the Department of Mysteries. I've been an Unspeakable for 38 years and have worked on all sorts of assignments. As you know the head of our department, Herbert Macnair has resigned and already left his office. You will have to appoint a successor."

"Thank you, sir. This will be discussed at length with the Wizengamot, I think, as this is a staff decision I will not make all by myself. I will certainly keep you informed. Until such time as we have a successor for Herbert Macnair I will appoint you to take over his duties. It should not be long."

"I will, sir. But my department will have to be exempt from public meetings."

"I'm afraid that I cannot accept the secrecy of your department to the extent that you were used to until now anymore. I'm prepared to have the whole department dissolved if the willingness to contribute to the community's interest is not shown properly. The matters you research in this department could well be handed over to one of the academies. I will, however, allow you to report in the confidentiality of my office under certain circumstances which will have to be negotiated and only on previous demand."

Celli nodded and seemed to accept the offer. Sirius turned to the next person, who was Barnabas Colby, the head of the Department of Economy, a seemingly very old gentleman.

"My name is Barnabas Colby, I have been the head of the Department of Economy for twenty-four years. I have come to the Ministry after forty years of being the chairman of the Board of Flourish & Blotts. I then started as an adjunct in my department and worked my way up. I was appointed to my office after the demise of my predecessor."

Sirius nodded and said:

"I'll have a few general questions to you later on, Mr Colby, regarding the general feel of the wizarding economy."

"I'm ready to answer them, sir."

"Percy and Arthur, I can pass over you both, so I'll pass to the next person. I'm afraid I don't know your name yet, Madam…"

The deputy of the Department of Internal Affairs stood up and presented herself:

"My name is Octavia Winter, I've worked in the Department of Internal Affairs for 38 years and became its Deputy fifteen years ago. As you already know, the head of my department also abandoned his post."

"Yes, I'm aware of that. We'll get to these things afterwards, thank you, Madam."

The next was Jack Hancock, the representative of the Department of Finance.

"My name is Jack Hancock, I'm heading the tax collection agency at the Department of Finance and since no one else wanted to represent the department I volunteered. I've been in this position for the past six years. I'd like to say that I'm not at all feeling comfortable with answering to an usurper of the Minister's position. I am only willing to stay on until a replacement for my position is found."

"I'm well aware that some of you will not want to be part of this. You are very welcome to hand in your resignation, sir. Thank you for staying on and being open about your discomfort."

The man nodded and sat down again.

The last one who needed to introduce herself was Zelda Jones:

"I'm Zelda Jones, head of the Department of Magical Transportation. I've been in this position for eighteen years now. I can still remember you, sir, you used to have a few little quarrels with us…"

Sirius grinned. Now he remembered the woman again. He nodded and said:

"I hope those little incidents have been cancelled from my records once I was of age…"

"They have. Like this kind of incidents usually gets cancelled after five years."

"I'm glad for that! Well, that leaves you, Amelia and Amos and I know both of you well enough. So, let us move on with the list of topics we all have in front of us. I would like to cover as much as humanly possible to become familiar with the Ministry's structures and workings. At the end of my long list of questions you will all receive an overview of what we think we should reorganise and I expect you should have some input as well. I want critics and comments. Can we go ahead?"

Sirius started to interview each and every head or deputy about their departments' structure, sub-units, offices, about the people working there, what they did, why they did what they did and more. They got through three of the departments by dinner time and Sirius postponed the rest to the next day.

"This meeting will continue tomorrow morning at ten o'clock. Thank you for your attendance and cooperation. And yes, I'd like everyone to turn up again."

While the people started to file out of the room, Arthur stayed behind on a wink of Sirius'.

"I hope you have forgiven us for dragging you up here in this way and making you head of the department without any formal offer and all. But we do think you are the right person to do that, Arthur."

Arthur smiled.

"I was held back by Fudge long enough, Sirius. I think, I deserve that."

"Fine. Including July your salary will be that of a head of department. We plan on renewing every Ministry official's contracts starting with the heads and deputies, and then going down to the team-leaders and common officials. It's going to be part of my re-evaluation of the costs of the Ministry. It might be that we will have to re-negotiate salaries, but I think you can certainly expect a considerable pay rise."

"Thank you, Sirius. I didn't expect that, but I'm gladly taking the position. Can we expect you and Remus to dinner at the Burrow tomorrow?"

"Yes, Remus told me already, thank you, we'll gladly come over."

"I just have to warn you about Molly, she's still furious! I just kept her from sending a howler…"

Sirius laughed and said:

"You know, I got one from the twins! But they practically screamed that they thought it was a bloody good thing we did! And so far only two other howlers. But we still get letters every day and expect it to go on for a while. Do you think, Ginny would like to come and help us sort the letters out?"

"Ask her! I'm quite sure she'd like a summer job and that sounds like a great one."

"That's fine then. Maybe she knows some friends who would like to join her, because it's a hell of a lot of work. I think we could easily occupy three or four kids…"

"Oh, sure, shouldn't be a problem. Just ask her tomorrow."

"I will."

When they reached their apartment again, Sirius finally read Harry's letter.

"Dear Sirius!

Since I couldn't see you since… well, since, I thought I'd send you my congratulations in a letter. We were all floored when we heard you on the wireless! Boy, I hope you've kicked his butt, too!

I had the intention of just staying to myself for a year or so and quietly get out of the spotlights, but if you want my help in any way, I'd like to offer it.

Harry"

Sirius and Remus smiled. Both thought that this was just plain Harry. Sirius sent him another letter and offered to talk about it the next day when he and Remus would come to the Burrow to dinner.

The work went on the next day. It was hard work and everyone felt like Sirius pulled them through a mangle, but Sirius was interested in details and he noted down everything. Remus put some order into the notes and checked that they were filed systematically right away. Sirius kept finding new questions and Remus added some of his own, which he thought should be asked. Together they covered most of the aspects that needed to be discussed and at the end Sirius had a pretty solid image of what he needed to know.

"Good, thank you all very much for this input. Now, I'll come and look around each and every department and I'll talk to your staff and continue my questioning on the lower levels to get an understanding of them. I can't just decide that this and that should be reorganised without knowing of its possible importance. But I think I can already see where we need reinforcement and where we might be able to go without. For the time being I beg you to continue your work as usual, we will see to get replacements for the persons who resigned soonest. I expect you back Monday in a week for our first weekly meeting. I'm sure we'll manage to get through by Monday evening. All meetings will be recorded and you will receive the protocols the next day. With that I'm closing today's meeting. Since this has been mostly for my own benefit I'm offering a full protocol for everyone who's interested, but you may not need one."

"I'd like one, if you don't mind," said Amelia.

"Got that noted, Amelia, you'll get one," said Remus.

"Thank you, Remus! I hope for a very prosperous cooperation with you two! You're welcome to start nosing around in my department if you wish to. I have tried to keep it as clean as possible, but I cannot guarantee that it's free from Death Eater sympathisers."

"Don't worry, if it's completely clean that would be a miracle! I'm not looking the departments through for that, I'll have Mad-Eye taking on this job. I'll discuss it with him next week."

"I'll tell him that he should come to you. I'd like to get through this mess as fast as we possibly can. Cornelius obstructed everything! Now that I know about the Dark Mark it makes complete sense. When I was appointed five years ago he still listened to Albus and I was lucky, because he had nothing to get me out of the position," Amelia said.

"You've certainly done your best. I hardly dare going deeper into the finance and economy departments. Looks like these are kind of self-service shops…"

"I'm afraid that goes especially for the financial department. Anyway, it's getting late and I see Arthur is waiting for you two, so we can discuss these things further in the weeks to come, I'm sure!"

"Thank you for your support, Amelia! You are one hell of a courageous witch!"

"That's okay, I've gone through very dark times and I expect them to brighten up a lot now! Glad it was you who took action! Could have been a lot worse!"

Remus and Sirius joined Arthur to apparate to the Burrow. They were welcomed with loud cheers from all the youngsters, a sneer and tight lipped 'hello' from Molly and a warm smile from Minerva, who had remained at the Burrow to teach Harry and Hermione the basics of the Animagus transfiguration. They had asked her to do this, Hermione because she was genuinely interested in mastering the art, Harry because he was interested in doing what his father had done. Ron had bowed out as transfiguration had been his weakest core subject.

Bill and Charlie were also there. They both thought the same thing as the rest of the younger generation, that Sirius and Remus had done something very cool.

"Getting rid of this old beast was the best thing that could have happened to the wizarding world. He was getting worse every day. Everyone complained, even the goblins at Gringotts," Bill said.

"They are still on my list of people to talk to, as well as the Muggle Prime Minister. Then I'll need to get into contact with the International Confederation of Wizards. And in the longer run I'll have to speak to foreign ministers. You guys don't even want to see that task list I've set up for myself. Remus adds to it on a regular basis. But I think, our first priority are internal affairs. Which reminds me, have you come to a decision, Hermione? At the moment I still have Miss Kenneth, but she's a bloody iceberg! Not too cooperative either and strictly does only what I have spelled out for her to do. You could start right away! And believe me, if you do this for a year or two it will look bloody good on your résumé."

Hermione grinned.

"I've discussed it with Harry and Ron and I've decided to accept the offer, Sirius!"

He held up his hands and grinned.

"Oh, thank the heavens! Two organisation freaks in my office, nothing can go wrong then!"

At this point even Molly smiled.

"I really have a bad feeling of putting people into positions who could be accused of taking advantage of their knowing me well, but this is a job where I need someone who I know and trust. No one will suspect you of favouritism, Hermione, because it's well known that you've been the best in your year at Hogwarts throughout your schooling. So I just snatched the best out of the available people!"

"I do hope no one will sneer because of it. Though I do expect some who will make snide remarks."

"So, report to the General Secretariat on Monday morning at nine, gal! Remus and I will be there to welcome you. You're going to head a staff of four people who are working directly for the Minister."

Hermione's eyes went wide.

"I wasn't aware that I'd have to lead other staff…"

"Well, yes, of course. They're doing the written jobs, the organising according to your orders etcetera. You'll be working closely with Remus, so don't worry. You even get a title, you're the General Secretary."

"Wow, Hermione! Sounds pretty good. Did you ask what this is worth in your monthly salary?" asked Ron.

"Ron!"

"He's right, Hermione, you'll make a pretty good salary. Though not as much as the current secretary earns, but that is because I'll have the new entries levelled lower in general. I also intend to re-negotiate existing salaries in order to cut expenses. – Arthur will still earn quite a considerable bit more than up to now, Molly…"

Later in the evening, Sirius talked first with Ginny, then with Harry.

"Ginny, did Arthur tell you that we'd like someone to sort out all the mail we received? There are three big boxes full of letters by now and we really need to have them pre-sorted and filed, so I can go through them systematically. It's a job that I'd pay out of my own money, but I'd offer you fifty Galleons for your time – as long as you need. And you can bring a friend or two and I'll give them the same."

"Yes, Dad told me. I'd love to help, Sirius. I can bring Luna and maybe Colin Creevey."

"Fine. Just tell Colin that he's to leave his camera at home, please! Then report to my office on Monday morning as well."

"I'll do that, Sirius."

"Are you sure you want to give them this much, Sirius?" Molly asked.

"Yes, Molly, I'm sure. I'd get nowhere if I just started to read the stuff and I do want to have a good look through it. After all I told the people to write and I am interested in what they have to say. Only I got pretty busy in a pretty short time and I will be that busy for a while."

"If that meeting yesterday and today was any indication of your willingness to work, then I think you'll do a great job, Sirius," Arthur said.

"That was very efficient indeed! I don't know how often I suggested such meetings to Fudge. He preferred to talk with the heads of departments in private. That was the reason why I returned to the Department of International Cooperation. This way we'll all be up-to-date on all departments' affairs," Percy said.

"Thank you, Percy, I'm sure you will do your best as well," Sirius said with a smile.

Molly looked indignant that her most trusted son would support Sirius. She scowled at Sirius whenever he looked in her direction, but he tried to not see it.

Finally Sirius talked with Harry as well. He invited him for a walk outside to be out of the others' hearing.

"You'd be an asset, though I don't know as of yet where, Harry. You've been forced to emphasise on Defence, but apart from the Aurors we need people who have administrative skills. Hermione will fit right in on that position she gets. You might be better off thinking about how you'd like to proceed! Many of the departments are fairly boring stuff, but you might like to join Percy's if there are vacancies. That's one, the other I could think of would be Arthur's Department of Muggle relations. The rest either demand legal or administrative or mathematical skills. How about we see what kind of vacancies turn up and tell you to apply? We don't want to shove you into any kind of job where you'd just kind of withered in the shadow."

"Frankly, that's what I'd like right about now. I'd like to blend in and vanish from the public attention and all, you know…"

"I completely understand that, Harry, but there will be one thing you'll have to endure. You're already on the list for an Order of Merlin and that is handed over in a small public ceremony. Can I count on you to accept that?"

"Yeah, I guess I won't be able to avoid that…" Harry said.

"I know it's hard! I've chased the journalists a bit away and warned them from misusing you, but I don't think it will last long."

"I wish I had your skill of talking with them. You were amazing during that press conference."

"It's a gift, Harry. You either have it or you don't. I've always had an easy time talking to people and the bath in those press hyenas may not have been pleasant but it didn't frighten me. You probably won't ever like that kind of attention. If it weren't for that I'd suggest you should go pro for Quidditch! You'd have a lot of fun doing that…"

"I just think that I should do something more productive than Quidditch."

Sirius laughed and hugged Harry, then he said:

"You remember what you said to the twins when you gave them your winnings? That we might need a few laughs? Well, we also need a lot of fun right now, it helps a lot in building up hope and normality after such insecure times. You would do something productive by playing Quidditch and if you harboured the idea yourself, follow it! There will still be jobs at the Ministry later on! Dare to dream and dare to follow your dreams, son…"

Harry looked up at Sirius, who was still a bit, but not much taller. Sirius could clearly see some unshed tears blinking in those green eyes, but he didn't say anything. Harry had a tight voice, when he replied:

"I was thinking of going pro! Professor McGonagall thinks I should, too, and she's got a pretty keen eye for good Quidditch players. If you really think you don't want me anywhere in the Ministry…"

"Harry, don't misunderstand me, we would certainly find something for you to do there! We'd want you there if it was what you really wanted. But I do think you could finally allow yourself some fun, even if it's hard work. In the long run I do have something in mind where you could be an asset. But it's still quite a bit away, and we still need a lot of research for this, on several levels and that's not your best side."

"No, you're right, it's not. It's Hermione's best side."

Sirius laughed and asked:

"So you have lessons with Minerva to become an Animagus? How's it going?"

"She's okay with us, but keeps telling us we're a long way away from the goal yet!"

"She'll teach you well, Harry. We did a dangerous thing back then, believe me! I wouldn't want you to do it the way we did it. With Minerva you have the best possible teacher!"

"I think so, too. Hermione likes her anyway, but I like her a lot better since I'm out of school."

"I know what you mean. She's softening, eh? Was that way when we had left school, too. She's a great softie deep down, you know. Your Dad and I always got along with her perfectly well, but we were about as clever in her subject as Hermione. That was very helpful. – Do you plan to stay at the Burrow?"

"No, not really. They're all awfully nice, but I think I'd like some solitude, too. I'll probably look for a flat either in Diagon Alley or in some close by area of London."

"You do well doing that. Maybe you should bunk with a roommate though. It's always a good training to have to live together with someone. Don't leave your friends completely, that would only hurt all of you…"

"Ron will be at the Auror quarters during his training, do you think I could ask Hermione? I mean, is it acceptable to share a flat with a girl, even if one's not… you know…"

"All you have to do is ask her. She might be interested. Just friends, eh?" Sirius asked with a wink.

"Yes, just friends, why do you ask?"

"You might not see it, but the way she looks at you…"

"She looks at me?" Harry asked, incredulous.

"Of course she does. And you do like her a lot, don't you?"

"Well, there's many people I like a lot, but I don't have to…"

"Ah, ah… you do like many people a lot, that's right, but you might ask your heart a few questions. I had to do that back when I fell in love with Remus and, boy, that was even harder. Ask your best **male** mate what's in his heart and then open up yours with the fear of losing the friend completely! I think, you have an easier trip with your **female** best friend there. Especially since she does not strike me as someone who takes the first step. Not many women dare to, even now."

Harry sighed. He knew that Sirius had a point. He had seen some of Hermione's glances, only he didn't want to believe that she might really fall for her best friend. She'd tried it with Ron and it had been agony for all of them. Finally it had been Ron who had seen that it was better to return to being friends instead of lovers. Harry had always expected things would turn out the same if he should turn to her and ask her out.

"I'll keep you posted," he only said.

Sirius grinned.

"Just tell me in case I'm right. Or don't tell me, I'll probably know since I'll see her every day! Just go ahead and ask her out, tomorrow is Saturday, go out and have a nice evening away from everyone and everything. Oh, and I was wondering if you already applied for the apparition license?"

"Yes, we all did. For Ron it's a must anyway, so we're all learning right now."

"Good. You are cleared to come and see us at our flat in the Ministry at any time. Next week the last of my accounts will finally be open again, so Remus and I plan to go house hunting. That will certainly be somewhere out of London. We want it cosy and away from the bustle of the city."

"I can help with that, if you like…" Harry offered.

"Sure, why not. You go and look and tell us which ones are worth for us to see them. Thanks for that offer."

Remus found them outside on the porch swing.

"Hey! Done having deep conversations about Quidditch?" he teased.

"We've been through a lot more than Quidditch! Do you want to go back to the flat?" Sirius asked.

"How are you doing? I think I'm ready to go back…"

"I'm fine. We'll strictly take weekends off, Remus. We need the recuperation time."

"Well, you'll have to be there if anything really grave happens."

"Yes, but only for that!"

"That's what you get for doing something stupid like that, love!" Remus said and ruffled Sirius' long hair.

"Yes, I know. But I said A, now I'm saying B. You suffer right with me," Sirius replied cheerfully.

"See how I always got drawn into their schemes, Harry? They were merciless! I'll never know how I got that prefect's badge…"

Harry grinned.

"I do. Like Hermione! Dear me, the stuff she got away with… and all the while she looks like she can't even kill a fly!"

"Oh, you accuse me of being deceptive? I'm hurt, Harry!" Remus said theatrically.

They all laughed and returned back into the house, where Remus and Sirius said their goodbyes before apparating back to the Ministry and their flat.

As soon as they apparated into the living room, Sirius turned to Remus and pulled him into his arms for a long kiss. Remus held him tightly and when they let go, he whispered:

"Let's make love, sweetheart, I'm missing you so badly."

"Yes, love, I've been missing you as well. How long has it been? Since well before the battle, wasn't it?"

Remus nodded. Then he pulled Sirius into the bedroom and started to undress him. Their lovemaking was a bit frantic, like they had almost forgotten how to do it, but after a while they were back into the rhythm and when both of them found their release, they both agreed that it had rarely been that satisfying. Sirius caressed Remus tenderly, stroked over his hair and looked into his eyes.

"I love you, Remus. Never would I have dared to do what I did without you. We're still out on thin ice, but we'll get to the solid stuff soon…"

"Do you know how much I love you, Sirius? You've taken the responsibility, but we're in this thing together…"

Sirius sighed.

"And I'm glad for it."

* * *

**Kungzoune: **Thanks! I'm happy you like it. I did want to write something quite different and keep the clichés a bit out... managed that for most of them, I think 

**Wolfstar:** Thanks! I think so, too, especially since he's described by McGonagall as one of the most gifted students in Hogwarts at his time in PoA, so I thought he'd be well able to handle something like this - and with someone like Remus in his back as his assistant... those two could really do great things. Somehow Sirius' character has really been wasted by Rowling, I could never treat him so horribly :-)


	4. Settling In and Cleaning up

A/N: The editor here has eaten up all my percent signs, which I noticed too late. All the figures in the earlier chapters are meant to be percentages...

* * *

**4. Settling in and Cleaning up**

The next day they turned up at Madam Malkin's. The cheerful old lady measured them and sold them several sets of business robes and everyday robes and promised to have them delivered before Monday morning.

"It's not that urgent, Madam, no need for extra hours for our sake…"

"It's not much work, just adjustments, really. A few waves with the wand."

"Oh, then it's okay. Thank you very much."

Then they moved on and went to Gladrags in Hogsmeade, where they both ordered two sets of formal and two sets of full dress robes.

On Monday morning Hermione came in with Arthur, Ginny and Luna. She had been out to the Diagon Alley to buy some coloured robes and looked very nice. Sirius grinned and was content. He introduced her to Elsa Kenneth and said:

"Miss Kenneth, this is Miss Hermione Granger. She will be your successor. I know that the job had not been advertised, but I decided that I need someone doing it who I know I can rely on. Miss Granger has just finished Hogwarts and probably made best of her year again. She's well organised and has a very quick mind to grasp lots of information in a short time, so don't hesitate to go through all aspects of your work thoroughly with her. Hermione, I'll leave you to the mercy of Miss Kenneth, but I'm sure you won't mind to share lunch with Remus and I, will you?"

"Thanks, Sirius, I will."

That settled the first young lady. Sirius turned to Ginny and Luna and smiled.

"Now to you both. Remus will take you to our flat right now and show you what's come in so far. And what we want you to do. Okay?"

"Okay!"

"We'll be back in the flat for lunch together. The house-elves are already notified."

Remus led the two girls to their flat and showed them the boxes.

"Now, you're to read over all the letters and place them in separate boxes. We'll then file them chronologically. This would be a box for extremely rude mail. This one for critical and this one for positive reactions. Anything you think you can't sort you could put into a fourth box and I'll go through it later. Feel free to turn on the wireless and help yourself to anything in the kitchen, if you want to. Okay?"

"Okay!"

"Well, here's a stack of prepared answers. We have written a letter to tell the people that we have received their mail and that it will be read, but that it will take some time for a personal answer. Every letter you file should have one of these sent. Address them and I'll show you the way to the Ministry owlery to send them."

"I'll do that!" said Luna.

At lunch, Sirius came back to the flat with Hermione and they all sat down at the dining room table. The house-elf brought the food and while they ate, Sirius asked innocently:

"So, what did you do on the rest of the weekend, Hermione?"

She looked a bit dreamy when she said:

"Just imagine, on Saturday morning Harry came and asked me out! We went for dinner and a film on Saturday."

"Oh, that sounds nice…" he replied vaguely. Remus looked at him critically. That sounded very much like Sirius, the matchmaker! He remembered only too well when Sirius had decided to bring Lily and James together.

"He even asked me if I wanted to share a flat with him. Do you think, I should? I know he's not short of any money, but he still doesn't know what to do with his life…"

"Why not? You could give him a lot of stability, you know. Plus, you're going to earn your own money, so you should find something suitable in which you won't step on each other's toes at each turn."

She looked hesitating for a moment. But then she nodded quickly and said:

"It would be nice. We could also have a third bedroom for Ron when he's free on weekends…"

Ginny and Luna were exchanging amused glances, which Remus noticed as well as Sirius did, but Hermione remained completely oblivious. Sirius had a smug grin, when he turned to the girls. Both of them had guessed that dear Hermione felt a bit more than friendship for a certain raven haired young man. But they all tried to keep a straight face.

Once Sirius and Hermione had left the flat, they broke out in squeals of laughter and Remus chuckled.

"Isn't she just adoringly oblivious?" Luna asked and tried to catch her breath from laughing.

"Gosh, we should do something! Those two will dance around each other for years if we don't open their eyes!" Ginny agreed.

"Knowing these two that could be very counterproductive, Ginny," Remus remarked cautiously, "they could kind of taking it wrong, you know. Better be very careful. But you might want to try and pry a little inside of Hermione, so Sirius could drop hints for Harry. He's quite good at that!"

Ginny grinned.

"Oh yes, you bet, I'll do that as long as she's still at the Burrow. Late night girlie talks and all. We have that quite often, you know. They'd be great together. My own curiosity needs to be stilled, too."

Remus laughed. He genuinely liked Ginny. She'd come past her crush on Harry a while ago and had finally settled for a companionable friendship with the trio, who let her then join their adventures more and more. They quickly went back to work.

In the following weeks it seemed that the wizarding community didn't really care as to who led their government. Sirius started his weekly meetings and went through all of the departments to see what the people were doing. Every day he took two hours to reply personally to all the letters he had received. When Ginny and Luna had finished their work there were about ten folders of positive replies, three of critical ones and one pretty thick one of downright negative ones. Sirius started to reply to the critical ones first, since he thought those people had a right to know about his intentions first. Many had been well written and while they expressed concern there were many who said at the same time that they were glad that Fudge was gone. Sirius apologised in every letter with a standard phrase, first for the delay and then for the shortness of his reply, but in order to reply personally he couldn't do it any longer. Then he would normally write about two or three short paragraphs concerning the writers' letters.

After the first two or three waves of replies, Molly Weasley found a few letters to the editor of the Daily Prophet, which had been printed. She read the paper to her breakfast and gasped, when she read the first one.

"What's it, Molly?" Arthur asked.

"Readers' letters to the editor, Arthur, listen to this one: 'Right after Sirius Black's coup d'état I wrote a fairly critical letter to him, since he asked for any kinds of comments to his own office. At the time I thought it was just a politician's word, and only about ten days later I received an obviously pre-fabricated standard letter that told me, my letter had been received and would be read and replied to. I thought, well, that's a bit more than the old government would have done, shoved the parchment away and expected it to remain forgotten. Imagine my positive surprise when I got an owl yesterday with a letter, containing a standard apology for the delay etcetera, and then a couple of paragraphs that treated my original letter and told me it had been more than acknowledged. I don't think it was enough to completely erase my concern about the way things were handled, but I'd like to take a public opportunity to thank Governor Black for the time he seems to take to reply to letters sent to him. Tim McGregor, Inverness.'"

Molly looked up and said:

"I wouldn't have thought he'd go through with that."

"I'm not too astonished, he has started to set apart two hours every day to reply to some of those letters he initially received. I do think he's very thorough, Molly. You should finally let go of your distrust just because he's got Harry's love more than you have. Or so you think. Ever since Harry's fifth year you've fought kind of a battle with him for Harry's affection and that clouded your judgment of Sirius in everything he did. They love each other genuinely in a completely different way than Harry cares for you. Sirius is a father and friend, you're a mother. That's not the same. McGregor is right. It's good to remain alert and critical. Sirius wants that. He thinks every citizen should be that way. As long as they can admit when something that's been done pleases them they have every right to criticise things they don't like."

"Sirius has not been fit to take care of a child ever! He'd just teach them irresponsible behaviour."

"I think you are thoroughly underestimating Sirius' character, Molly. It's good that Harry moved out of the Burrow, you started to smother him. No young man likes that, not even from a lover."

"This has nothing to do with Harry, Arthur! I'm still disappointed in you to not see it my way. You could have convinced Sirius to let go of Harry."

"Ah, but it has everything to do with Harry. Which is why I kept out of it. You have forgotten an important fact and that is, Sirius Black was Harry's legal guardian! You weren't. We had the luck of winning Harry's sympathy and we must consent with that, we have no claim on Harry!"

"And for the part that has nothing to do with Harry, isn't he turning the whole Ministry upside down?"

"Yes, he is. And it was highly necessary. He started going through Amelia's department first, because she invited him, but there everything is pretty much in order, because she was able to keep Fudge out as much as she could. Then he moved to the Finance department. The old head, Porson, and his deputy had abandoned the department right after Fudge's arrest and Hancock, the next highest official was out there in three days! You should have seen what Sirius and the Aurors found in there. The whole financial reports of the entire time Porson was the head were not only faulty, but obviously sugar-coated, to use a very mild expression. The whole Ministry expenses turned out to be about one third higher than they really were in these reports. It will cost about ten people in that department their jobs. And there will be a new controlling organ consisted of trustees and other financial experts who can apply and will be accepted by the Wizengamot. Sirius wants to assure that no tax payers money is being wasted anymore. Or as little as possible. Don't tell me that's not a good thing."

"One third? You mean they spent one third more than they needed to for Ministry expenses?" Molly asked, shocked.

"Yes, roughly one third."

"What did they use that money for?"

"Mostly favours for Fudge. Porson himself probably got a fair amount of it. They hid it in investments gone wrong, or pay rises for certain Ministry members, lots of things. When traced back to the original expense slips handed in to the financial department, it was usually clear that original figures had been written over. Since there was no controlling organ that was easy to hide and as long as Fudge was there he covered up for them with lame excuses why the budget had to be stretched. Sirius reacted by immediately cancelling nine different taxes on trades, sales and other things, that have been implemented in the past years. Let go of your distrust, Molly. Sometimes it takes someone rash who jumps into these things and starts digging around."

"You only say that because he's made you head of your department."

"No, I don't. And you know that very well. He has put me in the position I should have received years ago. You complained hundreds of times that Fudge was holding me back and you were right. There was nothing I could have done, while Fudge placed younger officials in front of my nose at least three times. Sirius only did what was right."

Molly held on to that grudge for a long time. She was always hard to convince, but her dislike of Sirius made it even more difficult for her to accept his new position.

Sirius was wondering in the meantime if he would ever be able to clean up that mess he had found. He presented his figures to the Wizengamot and the witches and wizards in that board were as shocked as he was when they saw the extent of the former government's misuse of power. Naturally no one declined his intentions to clean up the department. Several team-leaders were sacked with immediate effect and both, the former head and the deputy were faced with a charge. After a month of intensive work Sirius had a new staff in the department. He had hired several financial experts, one former Gringotts accountant among them and had placed Celestina Quigley at the head of the department, an elderly accountant who had worked at the department for over thirty years. She had been in a similar position as Arthur, powerless to do something against the wrongdoing of her superiors, held back in her career for being too outspoken. But she knew the department inside out, so Sirius gave her the head position after interviewing her thoroughly. Together they started to go over the next year's budget and reduced it to salaries, costs for the services rendered to the public, costs for the maintenance of the building and other expenses. They calculated cautiously, because Sirius still had to re-negotiate the salaries of all Ministry employees. He was determined to have them paid fairly. But he had the distinct feeling that there were irregularities in the salary system as well.

In his negotiations with the Gringotts goblins Sirius had asked that all accounts of the Ministry be presented to him. After that he found another little loophole created by Fudge. He had created several accounts covered by the Ministry, but there were funds coming in from Muggle enterprises. And they had been restricted to his use only. No one else was able to enter the vaults. Now that he was in Ministry custody the goblins had to be convinced, that this money was to be released. Sirius planned to rename the vaults for charity purposes the Ministry would support. The evidence of course went straight to the lawyer for the prosecution, Jeremy Smith.

Bringing order into the financial affairs of the Ministry brought a lot of cuts to many departments at first. Sirius forced the department heads to lay open their expenses in the Monday meetings, so he could decide whether these expenses were real or faked. It would be much harder to present faked needs for funds to the whole body of the department heads than to him alone. Someone would question them for sure.

The Monday meetings became famous and infamous. Sirius considered making them public, but kept from doing that. For those department heads who were still used to the old ways and who would not cooperate the threat alone kept them toeing the line. Once there was a bit of order restored to the Department of Finance he moved on to the next important one, the Department of Economy. It was nearly as disastrous as the financial department. Old Barnabas Colby was perfectly fine, but he had never noticed what went on behind his back or even right under his nose. His deputy, Frederick Pettigrew, was clearly one of Fudge's cronies. As soon as Alastor Moody and the Aurors turned up in his offices he backed out and took flight. He had been one of those most responsible for the corruption. Business people feared him, but never dared say anything, because their licenses to even go about their business depended on Pettigrew. He could make them or break them by suspending or even abolishing their trade licenses. Sirius only sighed, when he met Pettigrew. He knew the man who was Peter's oldest brother. The man landed himself in jail soon after until all investigations were over. He was detained because it was to be expected he'd leave the country and hide.

The very next day Sirius had a howler form Mrs Pettigrew. She screeched that it was a disgrace and that he was after her family and just wanted to destroy them. He quietly let it pass, then sat down and wrote her a long letter, explaining to her that it wasn't his fault her sons misbehaved. Asked her if she was aware of all the pain and sorrow Peter had inflicted not only on himself, but especially on Harry and Remus. He sent it off, knowing that it would be fruitless and that she'd probably throw it in the fire.

Remus felt sorry for him. He kept doing the daily jobs with Hermione while Sirius moved through the Ministry.

Hermione enjoyed herself immensely. For three days she went through her duties with Miss Kenneth, then the woman left and she was in charge herself. She was not only the General Secretary, she was the chief of staff as well and two of her four staff members only treated personnel affairs. They worked together with the Department of Finance for the payments of the salaries, regulated the house rules and were responsible for the hiring of staff members. Departments were to send their job descriptions to them and they would then advertise job offers in the media and house internally. Through them Hermione could have looked at each and every contract. The other two were there to do the written work for the Minister, or as Sirius claimed, the Governor. They had to get used to the different title, which Sirius said would only be temporary anyway. Unless he would be asked to later on he did not intend to stay for more than one, two years at the maximum.

In the meantime Hermione worked together closely with Remus. They set up new payment levels for the different positions within the Ministry. These would be presented to the Wizengamot and after that the staff would be informed. There weren't any major cuts in the salaries as it was, but there would be no difference between the categories and everyone in a certain category was entitled to the same salary. Some of the older members would therefore have a certain loss.

It was a hard decision and it caused quite a discussion the day Sirius brought it into a Monday meeting. It meant that Amos Diggory, Amelia Bones, Barnabas Colby, Ludo Bagman, Elizabeth Montgomery and Zelda Jones would be paid less than up to now. The greatest cut was for Colby, the others only felt it marginally. All newly appointed heads were already paid after the new system. But that wasn't everything, because the heads had to take the new payment rosters to their departments and inform their deputies and team-leaders about the new system. Lower ranks were left as they were. The lowest were actually lifted a little and got away better than before. Team-leaders lost a little and gained a little, depending on their former willingness to help Fudge and getting favours in return, but there were no great differences. Some of the deputies were hit similarly as the heads of the departments.

Sirius had made it clear that it was a take it or leave it situation. He had the support of the Wizengamot in his aspiration to cut the Ministry expenses to a minimum they could bare and see from there if some extras could be had.

For that reason Sirius called for a conference and asked for the attendance for everyone at the Ministry, even the house-elves. He informed them of the intentions behind the new wages and the cuts in the funds for general expenses and finished his speech:

"If you care to listen around you hear the complaint everywhere, that the Ministry is using too much. The Ministry is spending too much. The Ministry doesn't know where to save money and we have to scrimp and save to make ends in our businesses or everyday lives meet. Taxes are too high. If you care to listen then you should be aware that these complaints have substance. Instead of taking advantage of the power we have over the citizens we should take their pleas and sorrows seriously and start supporting the wizarding economy rather than break it down and exploit it as much as we can. That – and only that will grant us the trust of the people back. We can make mistakes, even costly mistakes, but only if we are intent on increasing their wealth through a booming economy rather than exploiting it for personal gain we will be trusted again. Each and everyone who works here at the Ministry must be aware that they are paid through other people's tax money. To be fair to them and show them that their taxes are used with consideration is the least we can do to show that we are indeed aware of that. In that sense I ask each and every one of you to quit if you can't live with that."

The uproar of some of the staff members was dampened a lot by those who agreed with Sirius and had been doing honest work for a long time.

The result of the work in the two most crucial departments at the Ministry was striking. It caused hope among the business people on Diagon Alley, in Hogsmeade and elsewhere. Even though only the latest nine special taxes had been lifted yet it showed pretty soon how pressing those taxes had been. The streets in Diagon Alley started to be filled with people again, while they had often been almost empty in the past two or three years.

The next department to get Sirius' attention was the Department of Internal Affairs. O'Connor, the old head had abandoned it the day after Fudge's arrest and the new head, Octavia Winter, had already foreseen what Sirius was going to do and had cleaned up a lot herself. It was an important, though small department. Only a few sub-units were there, mostly treating everything from St. Mungo's to other governmental organisations. Sirius was through within two days. He moved on to Amos' department, which had been very disrupted. It had been one of the places where many Death Eaters had been smuggled in and was thus in shambles at the moment. Sirius asked Amos to give him a list of all the vacancies and together and with the help of the Aurors they went through the remaining staff to find possible Death Eaters still around. They found no one else, just a few sympathisers, who were, for the most part, either sacked or placed in other departments. The whole Werewolf Registry was left unmanned. Sirius was met with more than reluctance on Amos' behalf, when he asked for some of the latest regulations against werewolves to be removed.

"You only want that because of Lupin!" Amos claimed.

"What's to say against Remus? He has a right to move around as any other human, Amos. Besides you know as well as I do that many of those latest legislatives were aimed directly at him personally."

"But he is a werewolf, not a human, Black."

"He is a human for 27 out of 28 nights and for 28 out of 28 days a month, Amos. Don't be ridiculous. It's much more dangerous to keep them from finding work and roaming about. Or do you want an excuse to go about and kill them because they can't keep themselves up and have to be outside on full moon nights?"

"No, of course not…"

"Well, that's what happens, isn't it? They can't work, so they don't earn anything to live, they have to roam the streets or the forests, because, after all they're still humans during the month and they have to live somehow. Either you allow them to have a prosperous, healthy life and know that this way you have their trust and cooperation or you let them rot and are presented with them as a potential danger."

"They can't be trusted…"

"Are you telling me you don't trust Remus? Can you stand there and tell me in the face you don't trust Remus Lupin, Amos?"

"He's not your average werewolf, Sirius!"

"He may not be, but do you know why? Because he's had relatives and friends who supported him and gave him reason to trust others. If you are telling me that you can't trust werewolves in general then I can only ask you: why would that be? Maybe because we don't give them any reason to trust us? I want a crew in the Werewolf Registry and the Werewolf Support Unit to get to work on these issues soonest. If you really want to do something good, you contact the werewolves and check if someone or the other would be willing to join the staff. The legislative that forbids employers to hire werewolves is to be abolished immediately. And I want this to be publicised with a statement to the press. I'll see it before it's being posted," said Sirius calmly and with that, Amos Diggory was dismissed.

Diggory gritted his teeth and followed the order. He wasn't convinced and he was too conservative to dare to go out of his old ways. But so far Sirius had shown great consideration in anything he did, so he just hoped for the best. Diggory knew Remus since the boy had been registered as a werewolf and he knew of the extraordinary path the boy and later the young man had followed. He knew of Remus' integrity, but he thought that Remus was just that. An extraordinary person. It didn't keep him from doubting that other werewolves could be the same way.

Within three weeks a new team was starting work at the Werewolf Registry. The people who had applied for the job were interviewed by Sirius personally. Among others there was Cho Chang who turned up. She had worked at the Magical Menagerie for a while, had then studied a bit more with several magizoologists and was very accepting of her new assignment. She looked at Remus and said:

"You were the best teacher we had at Hogwarts. I always adored Professor Flitwick, but we all loved you, because you had competence, sincerity and a sense of fun that most other teachers completely lacked. When I heard that you are a werewolf I didn't really want to believe it, but then I said to myself it was ridiculous to fear you. I don't know what made you so reliable, but I'd trust you any day. And it also brought to my mind that you are people like everyone else and that you'd only react to how other people treat you. I'm very willing to show that trust to anyone who will have to pass through my office. No one will be treated like an animal as it must have been so far."

"Thank you, Cho," Remus said.

Cho was placed in the Support Unit, where she started to gather information immediately. She was soon joined by two people in the Registry and several more in the Support Unit. The Registry's job was only to keep registering new cases and re-issuing registrations, while the Support Unit was to look after the inflicted werewolves and try to regain their trust and find them jobs and shelters. Cho soon learned that this was hard work. She was allowed to call on Remus though who would accompany her on a visit to others of his kind. Most of them had already heard of his new position and looked at him as a bit of a traitor and called him a salon werewolf. It was difficult to get them to understand that many of the regulations would be lifted if they were ready to accept some minor disadvantages, which were much less than the disadvantages they suffered until now. And they were promised help.

While Sirius had cut expenses in many other areas he had increased the budget for the Werewolf Support Unit. He firmly believed helping them would make society more secure and hired a potions mistress who was to brew large amounts of wolfsbane potion for every werewolf who was willing to take it. Soon the official Ministry shelters for werewolves were changed into comfortable rooms with only a few remaining closed cells for those who were unwilling to take the potion. Once some of the werewolves started to accept the potion on a regular basis they noticed that their full moon nights became easier and they suffered less and less injuries from the transformations.

"Do you believe me now, Amos?" Sirius asked smugly at a Monday meeting about four months after the start of the program.

"It takes trust to form trust. Only the example of others who will carry it further will get them to come in and accept that once a month 'confinement'. None of those who are in there present a danger to anyone. They are safe and feel safe. We are safe from them. Isn't that for everyone's gain? Once their health is back on track we may start looking for them to find jobs."

"I admit that I have let myself be guided by too conservative views, Sirius. We just have to remain alert. We still haven't bound them all to the Support Unit – by far not yet. But Miss Chang is doing a very good job."

"I know. That's not easy. And there will be new cases. But we need to treat newly bitten people with extra care. They are victims, they deserve to be treated as a victim. Treated the right way from the beginning keeps them and us safer."

One of the departments that needed practically no cleaning was Percy's Department of International Cooperation. He did a very good job of keeping the people in line and oversaw their work with a strict, but increasingly good-natured interest. He usually had his reports ready and complete for the Monday meetings. Sirius could count on the correctness of these reports and when he did make some random checks he found everything perfectly in order.

He made a similar experience in Elizabeth Montgomery's department. Sirius found her a delightful person, alert, interested and very adept in her work. Through her he met all the Ministry's examiners who flocked into Hogwarts once a year to the horror of all fifth and seventh years. He remembered many of them from his own schooldays. Elizabeth's department consisted mostly of very learned, intelligent people who were doing a fine job. He found that her budgets had always been very much in order. Astonishingly no one at the Department of Finance had dared to tamper with them. Elizabeth laughed and insisted that her predecessor as well as herself would not have been fooled.


	5. Finishing the Task

**5. Finishing the Task**

For a full year Sirius and Remus hardly got a break. Both were at their limits, because they were working so hard. Finally they both had the impression that the whole ministry was on the way to be clean again and started to think of how to go about appointing a new Minister.

Sirius called for a meeting with the complete Wizengamot. When they filed into the conference room, which had been cleared of the large oval table and fitted with rows of chairs, he got up and addressed them. There were, of course, all the members of the Wizengamot, but Sirius had also invited press representatives for the meeting, which he thought should be public.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he said, slowly letting his eyes glide over all of them, "you have kindly entrusted me with clearing up the chaos this Ministry has become in the past years for a good year. I believe I have started out with an illegal action but have worked hard since then to have a fully functioning wizarding administration again. I believe I have done this by regarding the law strictly."

Most of the members of the Wizengamot nodded. Some were doing it reluctantly, but those were still people called to the board through Fudge and some were probably still convinced that Sirius had done it all as a personal revenge against their former Minister.

"The budget for the coming year has been calculated roughly one third smaller than the previous year. The departments are functioning legally again and the irregularities in many of them caused by a former climate of favouritism, corruption and carelessness have ceased. We have several controlling organs which will be watching over the actions of the Ministry on several levels. I think, it is time to get a new Minister."

There was a lot of murmuring after that and one of the wizards, an elderly man with a short neck and greasy dark brown hair asked:

"In other words you want to be officially appointed as the Minister?"

"Did I say that? No, I don't want to be the new Minister. Not necessarily. I've spent fourteen months working through, cleaning up and encouraging changes where I thought they were necessary. Most of what I suggested has already been fruitful, especially when you look at the currently growing economy. Every tradesman will confirm to you that the trust of the consumers into the trades has grown, that families have more spending money after taxes had been cut and prices had been lowered after the lifting of several forms of sales taxes. In the past fourteen months we have been able to see what crimes the former government committed. If I look around at the faces I see in the Wizengamot today I think I'm seeing at least a dozen different ones than I saw fourteen months ago. Not only the administration has been cleansed, it seems to me that the Wizengamot has undergone some cleaning as well and rightly so. I also think, that I am reaching that moment at which I'm ready to pass the governmental power to another respectable member of the community to continue my work."

Again he looked around and then calmly said:

"I wait for your ideas of how we should be going about it. A general election? Appointment by your good selves? Who would you suggest?"

"Why not yourself?" a witch in the back asked.

Sirius grinned and admitted:

"To be quite honest: it's a hell of a lot of work and I need a break. A good long break! No, I don't want to do it right now. Maybe in twenty or thirty years I'll be ready for it, but right now I want to be able to pass it on to a competent other person. But let me tell you what I think this person should ideally be and bring into the job: Integrity. Sincerity. Interest. Fantasy. Ability to negotiate. Courage. Readiness to decide things on the spot. Ability to react to unexpected situations. Stamina. A really good and able mouth! And finally a certain age and experience, but the latter does not have first priority. Age does not always make wise, but many times tired and disillusioned. We must have a person with visions and alertness on this post."

It took a while until the members of the Wizengamot, other than Dumbledore came forth with ideas. They didn't have the experience the heads of the departments of the Ministry had gained in the past fourteen months and roughly fifty Monday meetings to input their ideas and comments. Sirius looked around them. They sat fairly silent. He made an impatient gesture and asked:

"Do you people ever talk with each other? Or do you just sit and decide in your head and then accept the majority?"

"We're not supposed to do anything else. We are supposed to decide individually and the majority will be accepted," one of the witches said.

Sirius stared at Dumbledore.

"Do you think that is a really wise way of handling things?"

"Yes, we do. We're not influenced by the others, our decisions are truly ours."

"Okay, then. Any names? Suggestions?"

"Who would you suggest, Sirius?"

"Someone who stands not a shred of a chance to be chosen," Sirius said immediately.

Dumbledore understood. Even with a better political climate, only very few people would vote for a werewolf. He also doubted that Remus would want the position. Sirius went on:

"We need someone who is at the same time comfortable to take initiatives and has no problems to decide on even difficult things. Someone like Minerva McGonagall for example."

Dumbledore looked up. A wizard in the back remarked that they now at least had a name. Sirius just shot back:

"You could throw in names as well, it's there for the discussion and for these people to run if we have more than one possible candidate. It should just be someone who's sincere enough to put the office in front of his or her person. Professor McGonagall would do precisely that. Only I have no idea if she'd be interested."

"I'm not really willing to give up on my deputy and one of the best transfiguration teachers Hogwarts has ever seen yet, Sirius," Dumbledore said in an amused tone.

"Well then, offer something."

Someone finally mentioned Amelia Bones. After that someone else mentioned the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, a man named Marcus Zander. In the end, Sirius had several names on a list.

"Now, there we are, that's some basis to talk about. How do you suggest we proceed? Should I talk to each of these people? Yes or no? Please hold up your hand for yes…"

All the hands went right up.

"Good. I will talk to these people and then we might hold a meeting to decide on the way the Minister is appointed. If memory serves me right it's usually the Wizengamot who appoints them, isn't it?"

"That's correct."

"Well, that's what we do then. I talk to the candidates and those who want to consider running should then present themselves to you in another meeting. After that you decide. I think we can close today's meeting."

Everyone shuffled out of the room. Sirius took his list and went back to his office, where he called for Hermione to fix dates with the eight persons on his list.

"Here, these are the people I'd like to invite to offer them to run for the Minister's position. Write to them that the Wizengamot thinks about possibly appointing them and that they should inform us if they were interested or not. Then fix a date with those who are interested, so I can talk to them and tell them what the office really means…"

Hermione grinned.

"More than you expected, eh?"

"Actually exactly as much. But I didn't expect it to run me down that badly."

"Well, let's hope we find someone who's as efficient as you are."

Hermione took the list and left the office. A week later the first interview took place. Amelia had decided to run for the office. Sirius thought she was the best candidate in the whole lot, so he encouraged her. There were two others who were interested and one of them Sirius thought would not make a better figure than Fudge. But he handed the candidate's list over to the Wizengamot with his personal recommendation being Amelia Bones. He didn't know if this would help her or not, but he had built up a good relationship with most of the younger members of the Wizengamot and certainly with almost all of the witches on that board. That was a majority already.

The vote took place in October 1999 and Sirius was very relieved to hear the result an hour later from Dumbledore who had been named the spokesman.

"The voting was in favour of Madam Amelia Bones, Sirius."

Sirius and Remus smiled. They were relieved, because they knew in Amelia's firm hands the work they had done would continue to be fruitful.

"That's great, I'll have the press statement out in a moment and will call for a press conference for tomorrow. I'll inform Amelia right away, Albus."

"I am very happy that this transition has gone by so well. I would have thought you might like the position enough to be a candidate yourself, Sirius."

"That would not have worked well. I started out with the promise to return to a properly appointed Minister as soon as possible and I intended to keep that promise. As I said, I might be interested again in a few decades. But until then… I want to finally live!"

"Good. Personally I will like to work together with Amelia. She's a very brilliant mind. She does have a heart and uses it. She has a lot of experience within the Ministry."

Sirius nodded.

"She's done very well on her end. She supported me from the beginning. I'm going over to her office right now and tell her about the decision."

After Dumbledore left, Sirius went straight to Amelia's office. He found her secretary and asked:

"Could I have a very quick word with Madam Bones, please?"

"I think, she's occupied at the moment, Governor, could it wait for a couple of minutes?"

"I really only need to tell her something very important. If you could interrupt her…"

"I'll see what I can do."

Two minutes later, Amelia came out of her office and greeted Sirius.

"Sirius! What can I do for you?"

He grinned.

"You can relieve me from my duties, Amelia! The Wizengamot has appointed you to be the new Minister of Magic!"

She looked at him with an open mouth, then beamed and said:

"Really? I was so insecure with my presentation!"

"Really. You will be installed as Minister from on the 1st November. Now, I don't want to hold you up, but it will be kind of important that you prepare yourself for a lengthy press conference tomorrow afternoon. The press communiqué is leaving the office as we speak, so expect to be the headline of tomorrow's Daily Prophet. They will swarm in on you soon, sorry."

"I'm prepared for that." She turned to her assistant. "Well, that means all my appointments for tomorrow afternoon are cancelled, Robin. Please inform the respective people about that."

"That's all. See you tomorrow!"

The Daily Prophet announced the prepared statement from the Ministry in the same words it had been sent to them by Hermione:

"The Wizengamot appointed Madam Amelia Susan Bones to be the new Minister of Magic – The decision has been made today that the current head of the Ministry's Department of Magical Law Enforcement will be starting her new office on 1st November 1999…"

Of course the room where the press conference was held was completely full the next afternoon. Sirius looked around. He'd got used to be in this room, holding a press conference about once a week in the past year. He made only a short statement:

"The time has come to act as I've promised when I took the office of a Governor fourteen months ago. I'm clearing my desk for the new Minister of Magic. Ladies and Gentlemen, please meet Mrs Amelia Susan Bones."

With that Sirius retreated to the back and left the stage to Amelia who had to reply to dozens of questions about herself, her political views, her position in the previous wars, her work in the Department and her career. Sirius turned to Remus and whispered:

"Do you know what we'll do on the day after she's safely started her new job?"

"Be somewhere warm and make love until we can't move anymore," Remus replied smugly.

Sirius grinned. "Precisely!"

"Which is why I have already booked a hotel in Bali for the duration of three weeks. And woe to anyone who's going to disturb us there."

When the next day's Daily Prophet was dropped on their breakfast table, Remus and Sirius found, that not only had it a lengthy story about the new Minister, but there was a story just as long about Sirius' achievement. Remus was mentioned a couple of times, too. It was pure praise. Within that one year, Sirius had managed to clean up the Ministry and pass through several of the corruption trials, which sent Fudge and some of his cronies to several decades to Azkaban. Sirius frowned, when he remembered that he hadn't even started on that project regarding the replacement of Azkaban. Or rather the guardians of Azkaban. He would contact Amelia about that when he returned from their much needed and deserved vacation. But for now he looked up and smiled at his lover, passing him the article. Remus was still reading over the leading article about Amelia.

"Is it okay?"

"Yes, it's very good. Amazingly."

They also looked through several other papers, but basically everyone was following the Daily Prophet's view that it remained to be seen what the new Minister could achieve.

For two weeks Sirius cleared up his office and introduced Amelia to her new job. She talked with Hermione and asked her to stay on for a while until she was comfortable in her office, because by now Hermione was well known to be a very competent assistant. Hermione accepted, but she was of course sad to see her cooperation with Sirius end. The two and Remus had worked together very well. Remus left all of his things in his office and of course it was so well organised every beginner would find out what was to be done. On Halloween, their last day at the office, both were a bit wistful, but both didn't regret one moment in the past fifteen months.

Harry had held his promise and had found them a home. It was a stately country estate, neither too big nor too small, three floors, with a huge living room and library, a winter garden and a solid cellar. Four bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor and another two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. Sirius had bought the house on the spot. It was a Muggle house, but he couldn't care less, because it was nicely situated off the nearest small town with a forest nearby and there was a lovely park around the house. Over the past year they had slowly furnished the house and Remus had started on the library, which filled steadily.

Now they apparated directly out of the Ministry to their home and both breathed a sigh of relief. This would be the centre of their lives from now on and Sirius was determined that nothing much would be able to lure him out of the house. They had made a lot of friends inside the Ministry and outside of it and expected to be invited out a lot and have friends coming by equally often. But for now they just packed their stuff, all Muggle clothes, for their vacation in Bali.

They made the work on the next day a short bit. In a short ceremony Amelia received the symbolic key to the Ministry and after a ton of photo flashes for the press and a few last statements they left. They apparated home, picked up their suitcases and apparated to a hidden corner at Heathrow airport.


	6. A Well Deserved Vacation

**6. Well Deserved Vacation**

One consequence of their official status had been that they needed Muggle passports. Both had received the necessary papers and so they could use regular Muggle transport. The flight was long, they were quite tired when they arrived, but it took them no more than a day on the beautiful island to recover from the trip. For three weeks they explored Bali, enjoyed the beaches and the sights, enjoyed the food and each other's undisturbed company and never once received one owl. They had a wonderful suite in their hotel, more like their own bungalow with a huge bedroom and a lovely cosy living room.

"It's just simply unbelievable that we're here and so happy, Sirius."

"Waiting for the other shoe to drop?"

"Sort of. It always happened in our lives, so it's sort of natural, isn't it?"

Sirius was lying on the couch with Remus on top of him and they enjoyed some quiet necking.

"Yeah, it's true, but there were always Death Eaters and Voldemort. Nothing of that kind around anymore. We just have to believe in peace to make it come true!"

He stroked over Remus' chest, slowly and softly. He could feel the skin underneath his fingers shiver. Both had a nice tan after two weeks of sunbathing on the island. The sun was just slowly sinking into the ocean and they watched, fascinated by the beauty of it all. They had spent the full moon at the beginning of their vacation in their room, Remus transforming and quietly rolling to a tight ball on the bed. Now it was the New Moon already and they decided to go out and stroll on one of the lesser populated beaches to watch the stars.

Remus smiled. He took Sirius' hand as they walked through the quickly falling darkness. It was warm and the sky was completely clear. Perfect conditions for some stargazing. On a small hill they dropped on the grass, lying on their backs and Remus cuddled up to Sirius. He looked up and searched for the constellations he knew. But mostly they just watched, immersed deeply in their own thoughts.

It was late in the night when they apparated back to their rooms. Sirius quickly shed his clothes and waited for Remus to do the same, then they both decided that a nice bath would suit them, so they filled the tub and Remus leaned back on Sirius' chest. Sirius wrapped his arms around his lover and kissed him.

"I love you, Remus. Thank you for being with me all the way. Wasn't it a wonderful year? With all the work we've done we probably made history! Can you imagine in three hundred years when Professor Binns bores all the students with my surprise coup?"

Remus chuckled.

"Good mental image, Sirius, you'll have to relate that one to Harry and Ron, I'm sure they'll appreciate it…"

"Won't they though? I'm missing everyone. I loved those weeks here, but now I'm ready to face other people again, and you?"

"I am, too, actually. What are we going to occupy ourselves with now? Can we just lay back and do nothing?"

"I don't think so. I'm thinking of getting a part of a Quidditch team. That would give me something to do, and it would be fun…"

"Not a bad idea."

"And you will write the ultimate book on werewolves. And then probably the perfect text book for Defence against the Dark Arts classes. And then my biography…"

Remus laughed. He looked up and saw that Sirius seemed to be serious about what he said.

"You think I should write books?"

"Yeah, why not? I'm sure after that year you'd find publishers easily. You could make quite a lot of money if you wrote my story…"

"I could. Would you want that? Everyone knowing about the horrors you went through in Azkaban?"

"It could prepare the grounds for what I have in mind. A complete prison reform."

"Oh! I take it that Dementors have no part in that?"

"Definitely not. Lock dangerous people away, yes, but Dementors? No! There's something else that worries me deeply. Wizards tend to just lock people away. That doesn't do much to teach them that they made wrong choices. It either makes them more bitter, more hateful, more determined to be what they are, evil or they go mad."

"So how would your reform look?"

"It will have to be done in several steps. First step is thinking about taking away the magical abilities of a person to be imprisoned. We all know that wandless magic is unfocused, but it's not that difficult. So any prison must be a building that makes the use of magic impossible."

"But that would include the people who guard the prisoners."

"Right. I don't think you'd need magic for that. If your next door wizard is incapacitated to use magic you just have to have the physical advantage and I suppose that's something that can be trained."

"Yes, that makes sense."

"So there will be a lot of research involved on making a building immune against magic. I'm not sure if that has been done yet. That's one way it could be done. Another could be a series of anti-apparition and new confinement spells that would be cast over the cells. Personalised and the prisoner would of course be tagged to their cell."

"That might be the better course of action in my opinion," Remus commented.

"But would take a lot more research, I think. I mean there would be all the spells that would have to be developed…"

"True, but it sounds like a better solution. Could be worked out while we gain the time to do it with your first idea. And what would happen with the Dementors?"

"They should be completely destroyed. I mean, weren't they invented for the bloody fortress?"

"Yes, they were. But I know only of the Patronus to chase them away, so far I haven't found out if there is a way to destroy them."

"I was thinking of fire…" Sirius whispered.

"Worth a try. We might get permission to use a Conflagratio spell on them. I don't think Amelia would mind to have one of them less," Remus said with a grin.

Slowly they stopped talking, when Remus started to lightly undulate on Sirius. That always sparked a reaction and he didn't have to wait long for Sirius to respond with a very soft moan.

"Bed?" Sirius asked in a husky voice.

"Bed," Remus confirmed.

Getting out of the tub, drying each other with a spell and walking over to the huge bed only took a minute of their time. And for the next hour or two they were busy until they fell asleep, sated and exhausted.

Three days later they were on their way back to the UK. On the plane Sirius asked:

"Do you think that something will ever change in that cosy flat between Harry and Hermione?"

"I'm shortly before giving up hope, to be honest. He's out playing Quidditch now and she's staying home most of the time, withering at the office and withering at home. We will have to meddle, Siri," Remus admitted.

"Yes, I think we'll have to. Somehow it all just halted midway between them, didn't it? I mean, both of them certainly know they feel something for the other and both of them don't believe the other feels something for them. Isn't that the most idiotic situation possible?"

"Hm. I'm thinking about what we could do. There are several approaches. We could see that Hermione 'finds' someone and goes out here and there, that would make Harry jealous…"

"Won't work. Harry will just wish her the best of luck."

"Shit, I forgot about Harry's tragic hero complex."

"Why not send them to dance classes together? Sign them up at a good place and maybe they will recognise their feelings when they dance together…"

"Part of the plan. And a good one! Now that we have time we can plan some more little schemes."

It was murderously cold when they came out of the plane in London. Both men shivered, passed the customs and looked for a restroom immediately to apparate home, where they could cast warming charms and ignite a blazing fire in the grate. Which they did immediately.

Much to Hermione's displeasure the whole Weasley clan and Harry had decided to give Remus and Sirius a house-elf as a house-warming gift. Cilly turned out to be a delightful little creature who charmed the whole family. Sirius and Remus had a lovely feast in front of them not ten minutes after they came home and dismissed the helper after that, thanking him kindly. They also found their bedroom toasty warm, with warming charms cast over their bed, best conditions to just drop their clothes and hop into bed for some lovemaking and a long rest afterwards. When they got up the next morning they didn't even bother to pick up anything or Cilly would complain he had nothing to do. Remus, who had cleaned up after himself all his life still had the habit of picking everything up, by hand or magically, and he apologised about ten times a day to Cilly about that. He decided to make good on it by ordering the elf to read books he put in his hands thus winning points in Hermione's book.

After a shower and getting dressed they went down to the dining room, where breakfast was served a minute later. By now Cilly knew exactly what they liked most and usually came up with it right away. About seven owls with "Welcome home"-letters awaited them, two stayed back after delivering their mail, so Sirius and Remus knew they waited for a reply. One of them was Hedwig.

"Hello, old girl!" Sirius greeted her and stroked over her head.

The snowy owl turned her head, looked at him and hooted. He promised to read the letter and write an answer as soon as he had had his breakfast. He fed her some of his bacon and a bit of toast. While he ate, he read Harry's missive:

"Hi Sirius!

Hope the two of you had the greatest of honeymoons (smirk) and have returned back home safely! I've got some tickets for the next Puddlemere match, we're playing against the Ballycastle Bats. Want to come and watch? Now that you've got some time left over I thought you might be interested!

Send your reply with Hedwig and I'll keep the ones you want on hold. It's a weekend, so Ron will be there and I think, Hermione might come as well.

Harry."

"What is it?" Remus asked.

"Harry's offering us tickets for their next match – against the Bats. Should be interesting! Want to go?"

"Yes, why not? It's been ages since I've seen a match the last time!"

"Same for me… we're really back to a normal life, sweetheart! This is the perfect sign for it. We can plan fun without fear! It's going to take some time to adjust, won't it?"

"Yes, I think so, too. All my life I've felt danger rising around me. And all my life have I been right in the thick of it, I'm really relieved that we've made it through."

"If I never have to cast a defensive or offensive spell in my life anymore it will be just the right amount," Sirius said.

"Exactly. So when is the match?"

"On Sunday. That's why he wants a reply immediately," Sirius said while he picked up some parchment and a quill to write a quick reply. He fixed it on Hedwig's leg and told her: "Off you go, girl, back home. Nip Harry's finger for us!"

He pointed his wand to the window, which sprang open and Hedwig took off.

"What's the other letter?"

"It's for you, too…" Remus said.

Sirius sighed and took it. He read it while Remus went through the other mail.

"Minerva welcomes us back and writes to tell us that Harry and Hermione are shortly before their initial transformation, Siri."

"Wow. That's great! I can't wait to see what they become!"

"We should open a betting pool…" Remus suggested with a twinkle in his eyes. Sirius snickered.

"We do need to find back to some of our Marauder moods anyway! Twenty years of war are more than anyone can stand, it's time for some levity!" he declared.

* * *

** Shinigami: **It's not the end for this story, but here they will only talk about it, not yet do it, it's just what Sirius plans to work on after leaving the Ministry. If you do want to read about Dementors being sacked you should read my 'Chronicles', where they're actually working on it. Not Sirius and Remus themselves, but they support the people at the Ministry and the result will be shown in the story :-) - Thanks for the review!

Shameless plug here for 'Chronicles', which is the sequel to 'A Year In Switzerland' - Chronicles is still a WIP, but I keep working on it as long as I have ideas. Read it and you'll find out more!


	7. Home Sweet Home

**7. Home Sweet Home!**

They met up with their extended chosen family for the Quidditch match. Most of the Weasleys were there to see Harry play, but also Hermione and one of her friends from the office. They met loads of acquaintances from the Ministry and shared a few casual chats. They saw Puddlemere win spectacularly against the Ballycastle Bats, then they all met up with Harry and some of the younger generation went for dinner at the 'Crazy Snitch', a wizarding pub in Oxford, where Quidditch freaks usually met up after the games. Luckily it was a huge pub with lots of smaller private rooms – probably set up at the moment they were needed by the owner. The food was simple but nice and they had floods of butterbeer and stronger stuff. Sirius and Remus watched how Harry and Hermione interacted. Ron noticed it and came to them, whispering in their ears:

"I can see that you two are observing my two best gits, err… friends. In case you have an idea of how to open their eyes for each other, then please, please tell me, they're driving me crazy!"

Sirius and Remus both burst out laughing.

"How can anyone be that intelligent and that thick at the same time?" Remus asked, shaking with laughter.

"Are you talking about Harry or Hermione?" Ron asks.

"Definitely Hermione. Do you remember when we asked ourselves the exact same question about Lily, Moony?" Sirius added.

"Absolutely. Now, how about you're working on Hermione and I'm working on Harry? I know you already tried your luck with him a while ago."

"What – and the git hasn't opened his mouth yet?" Ron asked.

"Seemingly not. They look like rather stuck. – I think, we should boldly tell them what the other feels. Or should we do this with a little intrigue? Like a forged little letter or something?" Sirius wondered.

"No, they could take that the wrong way round, not a good idea when you deal with those two. I think, the bold telling is the better course of action," Ron suggested.

"Yes, I agree with you on that one," said Remus.

Sirius picked up Hermione for a dance a while later and they chatted lightly about her work.

"Minister Bones is fine, if a bit formal, but she's a good boss. I have the same responsibilities as when I was working with you. But I still miss you! With you it wasn't just work, it was fun, too. I think I'll look for something entirely different soon. Just don't know what yet…"

"I'm sure that whatever career you start you'll be good at it, Hermione."

"Do you think, we could sit down for a while? I'm getting thirsty," Hermione said.

"Sure!"

Sirius led her back to the table and ordered a fresh drink for both of them.

"How are things between you and Harry, Hermione?"

"We're still sharing the flat and we're still best friends, what should have changed there?"

"Hm. I think I should be able to tell you what should have changed, since I know that a certain green-eyed Quidditch-star is quite taken with a pair of lovely velvet brown eyes that adorn the face of one of the most brilliant witches of our days…"

Hermione stared at Sirius.

"Don't you think I should have noticed it if anything in that regard would have happened?" she asked, a bit too shrilly.

Sirius noticed it and smirked. This was going to be fun. He saw Remus talking to Ron and one of Harry's team mates at the bar and winked at his mate.

"Well, as I know Harry, he probably thinks you wouldn't want to take this a step further and doesn't want to risk your friendship…"

She weighed that in her mind.

"You've got a point there. I'm the same. But I don't know if he feels that way, Sirius."

"That's right and you won't know if you don't ask. Same goes for Harry of course. I think, I've told him months ago."

"Wonder how he liked that…"

"Actually, he promised to keep me informed of the way things were going."

"Oh…"

"You do love him, don't you?"

Hermione looked down on her hands which were trembling enough to prove to Sirius that she was nervous.

"Yes, I do. Probably did from the beginning."

At that moment, Harry stepped up to the table again and they both shut up so abruptly that Harry looked at them suspiciously.

"Been talking about me behind my back?" he asked lightly.

"Yes, as a matter of fact we were. You might want to remember a certain conversation we've had at the Burrow, Harry and act up! And you might give him a few pointers, Hermione! I'm leaving you two to it, okay?" Sirius said brightly, jumped up and joined Remus and Ron at the bar.

He left two young people behind who stared at each other. When he turned around to look at them again about half an hour later he didn't see them at the table, but out on the dancing floor, dancing a slow. Sirius elbowed Remus and Ron and nodded to the couple. They were rewarded when Harry bent down and kissed Hermione.

"Woohoo! Hooray! They finally admitted to it and gave in!" Ron shouted.

"Mission accomplished, darling, our second most important task is finished," Sirius said and kissed Remus.

"You did it! Haven't lost your touch, Padfoot!"

"Sometimes you just need to admit that you've talked about someone behind their back! We can go home, love, they're taken care of."

"So are we – let's go! Home, sweet home is calling!"


End file.
